Residence hall project at GMU wins top award

Northwest Housing VIIIA, a student residence hall built by Balfour Beatty Construction and designed by Gensler for George Mason University, has earned a top award from the National Design Build Institute of America (DBIA).

The project received the highest honor in the Educational Facilities category. The award recognizes Northwest Housing as a project that not only achieved budget and schedule goals, but also demonstrated best design-build practices.

Completed in 2011, the 216,770-square-foot housing complex consists of two buildings that are six and seven stories tall, with a total of 609 student beds. Designed and built to LEED Silver standards, it  was completed six months early.

Located at George Mason’s main campus in Fairfax, Northwest Housing helped the university execute a strategy of creating an active 24/7 community to attract students, faculty and staff.

Don Ghent, principal at Gensler, said in a statement,  “I am proud that the success of the Balfour Beatty/Gensler team has been recognized on a national scale, and by such a respected organization as DBIA.”

Besides Gensler, other design-build team partners included J.E. Richards, JCM Associates, Encon Group, Barr Concrete and Paciulli Simmons.