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.
