ACI Announces Winners of Annual Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards

King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (ITHRA), Located in Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, Awarded Highest Honor

Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA, (October 22, 2019) – The American Concrete Institute (ACI) announced the winners of the 2019 Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards, who were honored at a Gala event during the Institute’s Concrete Convention & Exposition, October 21, 2019, in Cincinnati, OH, USA.

The highest honor was presented to King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, located in Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia.

Also known as Ithra, the Arabic word for “enrichment,” the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture is an 85,000 m² (914,930 ft²) building surrounded by a 220,000 m² (2,368,000 ft²) Knowledge Park that creates a space to inspire the imagination. Features of the structure include post-tensioned slabs spanning 15.9 m (52 ft), sloped concrete walls and ramps, and twisted and inclined reinforced concrete columns with decorative concrete finish. The building is 90 m (295 ft) tall and is supported on a 3 m
(10 ft) thick raft foundation. Stability is provided through a reinforced concrete core acting as a propped cantilever. The columns supporting the elevated slabs are inclined and result in horizontal thrust forces at the head and base of each column lift. The post-tensioned slabs act as structural diaphragms to carry these forces back to the core. Construction was completed in the fall of 2017.

The ACI Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards were created to honor the visions of the most creative projects in the concrete industry, while providing a platform to recognize concrete innovation, technology, and excellence across the globe.  To be eligible for participation in the Excellence Awards, projects needed to be winners at a local ACI Chapter level and submitted by that Chapter or chosen by one of ACI’s International Partners. 

An independent panel of esteemed industry professionals judged projects and selected winners based on architectural and engineering merit, creativity, innovative construction techniques or solutions, innovative use of materials, ingenuity, sustainability, resilience, and functionality.

Additional winning projects were selected from among several possible categories, and included:

• Decorative Concrete
  • 1^st Place: Qatar National Library, Doha, Qatar.
  • 2^nd Place: Metro State University of Denver–Aerospace & Engineering Building: Denver, Colorado, United States.

• High-Rise Buildings
  • 1^st Place: Generali Tower, Milano, Italy.
  • 2^nd Place: Statue of Unity, Gujarat, India.

• Infrastructure
  • 1^st Place: I-91 Brattleboro Bridge–Concrete Bridges to Nature: Brattleboro, Vermont, United States.
  • 2^nd Place: Goethals Bridge Replacement Project: Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States.

• Low-Rise Buildings
  • 1^st Place: Hamad Port Project–Design and Build of Visitors Centre, Doha Port, Doha, Qatar.
  • 2^nd Place: Anastasis Church, Ille-et-Vilaine, France.

• Mid-Rise Buildings
  • 1^st Place: King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (ITHRA), Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia.

• 2^nd Place: MGM National Harbor, Oxon Hill, Maryland, United States.

• Repair & Restoration
  • 1^st Place: Palais d’Iéna (Restoration of the Façades), Paris, France.

• 2^nd Place: Lake Peachtree Spillway Replacement: Peachtree, Georgia, United States.

The winning project details can be found at ACIExcellence.org. Entries for the 2020 Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards are being accepted now through April 6, 2020. 

Visit ACIExcellence.org for more information. 

Always advancing – Founded in 1904 with a headquarters in Farmington Hills, MI, USA, and a regional office in Dubai, UAE, the American Concrete Institute is a leading authority and resource worldwide for the development, dissemination, and adoption of its consensus-based standards, technical resources, educational & training programs, certification programs, and proven expertise for individuals and organizations involved in concrete design, construction, and materials, who share a commitment to pursuing the best use of concrete. For additional information, visit www.concrete.org.