Announcements
CMAA New England Celebrates Projects, Professionals, and Students
The New England Chapter of the Construction Management Association of America held its annual Mark H. Hasso Project Excellence and Scholarship Awards Program to celebrate excellence in projects, recognize achievements of CM students, and name its Project, Person, and, for the first time, Educator of the Year. The event was held again at the Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport, an outstanding venue with a staff that was extremely helpful throughout the planning process and during the event. Co-hosts Austin Chaffee, CCM (Jacobs) and Jamilee Fish (Suffolk) guided attendees through the afternoon's awards, videos, and live audience polling.
This year, there were twelve project excellence award winners in four categories. Of these twelve, one was named Project of the Year by CMAA-NE. Continuing the popular annual theme of "The Rest of the Story," the Project of the Year team was invited back to share the backstory of how their project was delivered.
CMAA-NE was delighted that Michael Mendick, PE, CCM, the National CMAA Board Chair Elect, who will assume the Chair position at the National Conference in October, was able to attend and deliver remarks on behalf of CMAA National alongside Chapter President Derrick Brantley (HNTB). In a lighter moment, Michael drew a parallel between the American colonies breaking away from Britain, and the Connecticut Chapter breaking away from the New England Chapter 16 years ago - to which the NE Chapter responded, in equally good humor, that New England remains a forgiving Chapter and would welcome Connecticut back into the fold should they ever reconsider. Michael is the District Engineer for the Connecticut Department of Transportation District 5 in New Haven.
Distinguished Service Awards were presented to two long-serving Board members. Michael Bertoulin, CCM, PE (Parsons) has served on the Board for 20+ years, most notably on the Awards Committee, with a project portfolio spanning the Central Artery / "Big Dig," the Whittier Bridge Replacement / I-95 over the Merrimack (a prior CMAA Project of the Year), and 2026's award-winning Terminal 5 Pier & Dredging project. Thomas Ellis Jr., AIA, CCM (Jones Lang LaSalle) joined the Board in 2016 and has been with CMAA since 1995, serving on Government Affairs and Finance committees and remaining active with CMAA National. Both are stepping
Outstanding Academic Achievement Scholarships of $5,000 each were awarded to seven CM students from five universities as follows:
Wentworth Institute of Technology: Melanie Chaves and Samuel Machado
Each student recipient prepared a video. Excerpts were shown and each CM student was recognized at the program for their academic achievement and commitment to a career in construction management. The Mark Hasso Endowed Scholarship of the CMAA New England Chapter that is administered by WIT and awarded separately from the Chapter's scholarship program, recognized two recipients this year, Benjamin Conte and Sonia Resha, both of whom were present and acknowledged.
Mike D'Agostino, MSCM (Wentworth Institute of Technology) was named the inaugural CMAA-NE Educator of the Year, an honor that coincides with his 20th anniversary at WIT. The award carries particular meaning given the program's namesake: after Professor Mark Hasso's passing in 2020, Mike took over Mark's CMAA-NE student involvement and the WIT CM Club mentorship, making it fitting that the first CMAA-NE Educator of the Year is recognized on a program bearing Mark's name. Mike's dedication to CM students is legendary; as one WIT alum put it, "His name is widely recognized and respected among Wentworth alumni, a distinction earned through action, not title." Mike thanked his wife, Joanne, who was present, for being at his side and understanding the long hours. He also recognized John Cribbs, WIT Dean of the School of Management, for his support.
Phillip Eng, PE, General Manager and CEO of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, was named the 2026 Person of the Year. In just three years at the MBTA, Phillip has delivered measurable results across the system. His Track Improvement Program eliminated more than 220 speed restrictions in 14 months, saving riders 2.4 million minutes every weekday. He accelerated the South Coast Rail Fall River / New Bedford Line, which celebrated its one-year anniversary in March 2026. And on the recently awarded $1B+ North Station Draw One reconstruction, his mid-design pivot from Design-Bid-Build to Design-Build delivered greater cost certainty and a shorter timeline. Phillip's recognition is well deserved. Phillip also thanked his wife Carole who was also present, for her support and patience in his endeavors.
The Program continued with the individual Project Awards in various categories for excellence in the execution of construction management techniques and best practices, each accompanied
Building - New Construction
Less than $30M: Malden Catholic Academic & Athletic Facility, Malden, MA - Timberline Construction Corp./Scalora Consulting Group
Less than $100M: Lynnfield Public Safety Buildings, Lynnfield, MA - PMA Consultants, LLC
Greater than $100M: South Station Tower, Boston, MA - Suffolk Construction
Building - Renovation / Modernization
Less than $30M: Wadsworth House Renovation Project, Cambridge, MA - Harvard University Housing and Real Estate
Less than $50M: Framingham Logan Express, Framingham, MA - Stantec
Program Management
Redbrook Water/Wastewater Treatment Facilities, South Plymouth, MA - Weston & Sampson
Infrastructure
Less than $30M: Logan Airport Roadway Rehabilitation Project, East Boston, MA - BOND Civil & Utility/STV Incorporated
Less than $50M: Conley Terminal New Truck Gate Processing Facilities Project, South Boston, MA - Jacobs Engineering Group Inc./GEI Consultants Inc.
Less than $100M: Terminal 5 Pier & Dredging, North Kingston, RI - WSP USA Inc. / Manafort Brothers, Inc.
Greater than $100M: MBTA Rail Bridge Replacement Design-Build, Wellesley, Weston, Somerville, Lawrence, Melrose, Lynn, MA - VHB/Barlette Heavy Division
Chapter Choice Award
William E. Carter School, Roxbury/South End, Boston, MA - BOND Building Construction, Inc.
Project of the Year
UMaine Shawn Walsh Hockey Center and Harold Alfond Sports Arena Renovations and Additions, Orono, ME - PC Construction
The $40.1M CM at-Risk renovation and expansion, built by PC Construction for the University of Maine System with architect WBRC, delivered the most significant transformation of Maine's only NCAA Division I hockey venue in its 46-year history. The construction window was bracketed by two hockey seasons, with three unmovable milestones between them: the 2024 commencement held inside the arena, Shawn Walsh occupancy for summer 2025 pre-season, and Alfond Arena readiness before the October 10, 2025 home opener. Across 31,000 SF of renovation and 21,000 SF of addition, the venue never went dark. When trade contractors declined to bid the Alfond Arena roof's hyperbolic paraboloid geometry, the team produced an accurate takeoff using drone mapping and CAD translation, then pivoted to a specialty coating, adding ten years of life and redirecting savings to other owner-priority scope. UMaine added $2.24M in owner-initiated scope including a fire alarm replacement and $800K in ADA upgrades; the team delivered 3.5 weeks ahead of the amended schedule, with 27,997 work hours and zero OSHA recordables.
The Project of the Year team also delivered "The Rest of the Story." Three members of PC Construction's project team, Matt Skillin (Senior Project Manager), Dave Manz (Senior Project Engineer), and Drew Swinerton (Project Engineer and University of Maine alum), shared the lessons behind the result. The 15-minute presentation highlighted the project goals, preconstruction planning, construction challenges and innovations, and the arena’s transformation, emphasizing how early coordination and creative problem-solving helped the team meet critical milestones. Among the details shared: the Alfond Arena's origami-like roof, with its distinctive panel lengths and seams; a timber-look composite soffit finished with seamless, continuous blended joints; and an extremely low-profile beam system above the men's and women's hockey locker rooms that supports the plaza level overhead while accommodating HVAC supply and return to the locker rooms below.
As described previously, each Award winner prepared a short video showcasing their project for viewing at the Awards. At the end, the attendees were asked to select the Best Video through a QR code system. The live polling was tallied and the results were graphically displayed as a bar chart. However, the tallying was not displayed all at once but updated sporadically as the audience voted. This caused delays in the totaling. At the end, as attendees voted on the videos, the two leading videos shown has vertical bars ran neck-and-neck down the stretch, switching lead numerous times along the way. Finally, Austin had to place a 10 second time limit on the final voting and results. Ultimately, the William E. Carter School (BOND Building Construction) edged out Framingham Logan Express Garage Expansion (Stantec) for Best Video….by a nose!
CMAA New England would like to acknowledge the efforts of the Awards and Scholarship Committees for an outstanding program as well as the Annual and Event Sponsors for their support to the Chapter. Additionally, special thanks go to Amanda Mello (Carcon) for her outstanding work on this year's program booklet, to Crown Trophy for the awards, and to Parsons for providing the nametags. Finally, extraordinary thanks to the award-winning teams’ marketing and video production teams for producing the outstanding project videos that make this event so enjoyable and captivating.
A recording of the program and each individual project video can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAcnhMc8LwufL0c1HFt2qmrY2nUevfRQB
And the event photos can be found at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/182822117@N05/albums/72177720333958224.
CMAA-NE Golf for CM Scholarships - 30th Year & Counting - a Success!
Thirty years ago, in 1996, CMAA New England held its first golf tournament with the mission to continuously raise funds yearly for Construction Management Scholarships to local CM students. Each and every year the tournament has grown and now consistently sells out weeks in advance. The initial tournaments were small events, as we experimented with different golf courses, weathered economic downturns, even the weather itself, and after 30 years the Tournament is still going strong. Once again, Golf Chair and President-Elect Sean O’Rourke emceed the after-tournament festivities. CMAA-NE President Derek Brantley briefly thanked everyone for making the tournament a success.
On May 20th, we were again at Brookmeadow CC in Canton, sold out weeks prior to tee time, with a total of 30 Corporate Sponsor foursomes and 24 Individual players. The weather was sunny, 90°+, with a nice breeze…perfecto. Each year we have been fortunate to have new Golf Corporate Sponsors which contributed to a continued influx of new contributors that support student scholarships. We would like to thank our Sponsors for breakfast (HDR and Suffolk), lunch (Leggat McCall Properties), golf balls (Suffolk), beverage cart (E.G. Sawyer) and hole prizes (AEON, CWC, Skanska, Multivista, Wentworth, SMK Services, and Keville).
Each golfer was given a couple of very nice thank you gifts that were waiting for them in their cart, an etched 30th Anniversary CMAA-NE Road Trip Travel Mug from RTIC and a JBL Bluetooth Mini-Speaker similarly logoed with CMAA-NE. These items are a far cry from the meager printed bag of tees with a ball marker from yesteryear, when we were fledglings and could not afford much. This year, we even elevated our game by using a drone to take aerial photographs. Next year, maybe an AI gadget.
Tournament highlights included:
1st Place (59) – ICO Energy
2nd Place (61) – Citywide Construction
3rd Place (63) – CDM Smith
Totally unusual was the three-way tie for 3rd place between CDM Smith, Skanska, and PMWeb!! The winner, CDM Smith, was determined via a card off by a birdie on Hole 2.
Skill competition winners included: Women’s Longest Drive was won by Christine Mizioch; Men’s Longest Drive was won by Kurt Brown; Closest to the Pin Par 3’s: No. 4 Chris Murray w/9’-6”, No. 6 Stacey Epps w/7’-1’’, No. 15 Joel Abbott w/6”-6”; and the Straightest Drive was awarded to Colleen Moore. Unfortunately, there were no Hole-in-One winners….however, kudos to Keville Enterprises for continually sponsoring the yearly Hole-in-One Prizes, for 17 years!
No winners for the $250 Happy Gilmore putting contest which requires sinking a 35’ putt with a hockey stick. Two individuals hit the ball too hard and it bounced over the cup. However, the very nice No. 18 “Gilmore” hockey shirt raffle prize was won by Paul Morelli. In addition, the winner of the 50/50 Raffle was Justin Gould who walked away with $350 in cash.
This year our Raffle Anchor Prize of a $500 Gift Certificate for anywhere Delta flies, in memory of Russ Adams, was won by Paul Morelli, yes, the same Paul Morelli who won the shirt, (a three-time winner, also winning the $50 Amazon/$50 Pro Shop cards) who can now also fly Delta wearing his Happy “Gilmore” hockey shirt. Paul was worried that when he picked the 50/50 raffle ticket, it would be his ticket! For many years, Russ was the Golf Committee member who picked up the yearly prize of a 50”+ Samsung 4K Smart, and coordinated all the CM Students from the various colleges.
This past year, thanks to the generosity of all participants, including our Corporate Golf Sponsors and individual players, CMAA New England secured $35,000 to be used for CM Scholarships. We are very pleased to award 7 - $5,000 Scholarships to CM Students. All proceeds go directly into our Scholarship Fund. Two Scholarship winners, Melanie Chaves and Sam Machado from Wentworth, were present to help.
Ten CM students from Wentworth Institute volunteered to help with the tournament, under the guidance of Mike D’Agostino of Wentworth. CM students are the heart of the event, are a tremendous help, and are instrumental in each tournament’s success. Debra Caminiti, the CMAA-NE Scholarship Committee representative at the event, recognized all the CM Students and explained to attendees the process of applying for the scholarships. Scholarship applications were sent to seven New England Colleges who have CM Programs. From there, 14 applications were received and 7 were selected to receive scholarships. Recipients were from Northeastern University, Roger Williams University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Western New England University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
The CMAA-NE Chapter and Golf Committee would like to express our sincere thanks to all participants, Golf Corporate Sponsors, and those that helped make the event a success! Normally we book the 3rd Wednesday in May, so hopefully next year’s Golf Tournament at Brookmeadow CC will be Wednesday, May 19, 2027. Jot the date down! We look forward to seeing all of you next Spring. Wishing you all a happy and healthy year. Thanks again.
Event photos can be found at CMAA New England Chapter Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/182822117@N05/albums/72177720333799684
