The juror panel chose seven recipients for the 2021 Best Development Award Program. Each year, 1000 Friends of Iowa receives nominations for smart growth/shrink and development, which are then judged against strict criteria in their respective category by a group of jurors. This year’s jurors were Megan Down, Project Manager for Impact 7G; Jim Engle, Director of Iowa Downtown Resource Center; Jeff Hanson, Community Development Operations Manager of the City of Sioux City; Ulrike Passe, Associate Professor of Architecture and Director for the Center for Building Energy Research at Iowa State University and Bethany Wilcoxon, Senior Adviser for McClure Engineering.
A virtual award ceremony to celebrate these sustainability heroes will be held Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022 at 11 a.m. Register here for the ceremony: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OR-vO8ePQeKGNJKC8zKfug
The 2021 winners are listed below. Click through’s with images are forthcoming.
- In the special Best of Show category, the Tom and Ruth Harkin Center at Drake University in Des Moines, for its comprehensive incorporation of smart building and development practices in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.
- In the Mixed Use category, the Taubman Block in Maquoketa, for converting a long-vacant historic commercial building in a fully occupied retail and residential property.
- In the Renovated Commercial category, the Bellevue Button Factory in Bellevue, for converting a vacant factory into a usable space that fills community needs with many positive trickle-down effects.
- In the Innovative Leadership category, Dupaco for the Voices Building in Dubuque, for converting a vacant manufacturing building into an operations center that revitalizes the Historic Millwork District.
- In the Renewable Energy – Private category, Kemin Industries for the multiple solar arrays at its Global Headquarters in Des Moines, which are replicable throughout the company’s other sites
- In the Renewable Energy – Civic category, Clenera and CIPCO for the utility-sized Wapello Solar Field in Louisa County, which can power 45,000 homes
- In the Renovated Residential category, the Mitchell Maskrey Mill in Maquoketa for sustainably repurposing a blighted flour mill into needed housing which continues the momentum in a revitalized downtown area
- In the Transportation / Complete Streets category, the City of Windsor Heights for its University Ave Reconstruction in Windsor Heights which incorporated multiple modes of transportation, stormwater management, and placemaking.