Structural engineering firm Structura is a member of the project team which also includes lead design firm Ayers Saint Gross, among others, honored by Engineering News Record (ENR) for its work on renovating the Baltimore Visitor Center. 
The renovated Baltimore Visitor Center, located in the city’s Inner Harbor, was named “Best of the Best Small Project (Under $10 Million)” for 2016 by ENR, one of the construction industry’s top trade publications. The ENR competition marks the culmination of a year-long effort “to identify the pinnacle of design and construction achievement in the entire U.S. among projects completed between May 2015 and June 2016,” says ENR Deputy Editor Scott Blair.  
The $1.3-million renovation of the Visitor Center involved replacing every interior and exterior lighting fixture, including custom fixtures that illuminate new custom millwork displays. Existing circuitry was replaced with new conductors and a cutting-edge lighting control system that permits fixture control through a single copper conductor.  
Structura specifically handled supports for a hanging glass sculpture suspended from the ceiling of the Visitor Center, as well as the building’s operable display cases. 
Beyond being an information hub for Baltimore’s 11 million tourists annually, the Visitor Center plays a key role in the city’s annual Light City Festival. The renovation – including a new interactive LED lighting package that responds to drum beats and – had to be ready in time for the 2016 festival, which began a little more than four months after the project began. Despite the accelerated schedule, the project team successfully managed the procurement, fabrication, and delivery of several customized elements, completing the entire project on time and on budget.   
“A great outcome and product on a tight budget makes [the Visitor Center] seem like a high-budget project,” one of the ENR judges noted in evaluating the work. 
The ENR competition began in March 2016 with a call for entries to the construction industry, resulting in more than 700 industry project teams submitting their work to 10 regional Best Projects competitions. Once the regional winners were chosen, the top winners in each of 20 categories from each region moved up to the national competition, where a new set of judges examined each project in order to distinguish the best from the best in terms of teamwork, safety, overcoming challenges, innovation, and quality. 
All winners will be honored at ENR’s Best of the Best Projects Awards Banquet in New York City in April. Project teams will be honored at the Award of Excellence gala dinner at the New York Hilton Midtown on April 13, and award plaques will be presented to the project teams at a breakfast ceremony on April 14. For more information, visit www.enrawardofexcellence.com or www.structura-inc.com. 
About Structura
Structura was established in 1988 with a single mission: to create buildings that connect communities and enable people to live and work to their full potential. Working with developers, architects, property managers, and contractors, Structura solves structural engineering, building design, investigation, and rehabilitation challenges. Structura works primarily in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, focusing on a wide range of market sectors – including multi-family housing, mixed-use, education, commercial, hospitality, government, adaptive reuse, and performing arts – from its offices in Rockville, MD and Baltimore, MD.