Best Commercial Modular Buildings: MBI Announces Award Winners

Every year the Modular Building Institute (MBI) sponsors its prestigious Awards of Distinction contest, presented at MBI's World of Modular, an annual convention and tradeshow. As the only industry contest of its kind, MBI's Awards of Distinction reviews commercial modular building entries submitted by MBI member companies. Entries are judged in the areas of architectural excellence, technical innovation, efficiency and length of project. This year's contest featured over 60 participating MBI member companies that competed in the following categories: Permanent Modular, Temporary Modular, Renovated Reuse, Marketing Pieces, Green Building Designs, and Student Green Building.

The highlight of each year's industry-wide contest is the Best in Show competition category, where awards are conferred by industry peers for what they collectively recognize as the best modular structures in the business. This year's Best in Show competition category was presented at 2009 World of Modular, the annual convention and tradeshow of the modular construction industry. The event was attended by 400+ industry members March 28-31 in Las Vegas, NV. During the show, attendees were asked to vote for the Best in Show award after reviewing all Awards of Distinction contest entries.

Honors were awarded for five categories:

Best of Show: Green Building Design. Project FROG for Jim Russell Racing Drivers School. Winner in the green category, the Project FROG approach to thermal comfort goes beyond air temperature with a focus on energy-efficient ventilation and flexible building technology. The FROG Raised Floor System is superior to overhead or wall mounted, fan diffused systems in most modular units. Air is supplied by multiple floor diffusers, creating an upward flow of fresh air via natural convection and exhausted through ceiling return outlets. In comparison, overhead systems mix cool and heated air near the ceiling, spending energy forcing it down to user zones. Cool air is supplied at higher temps/lower velocity than overhead systems, reducing discomfort from high air speed/cold spots. Also, the number of operable windows exceeds minimal requirements. Energy savings are due to diffusers’ close proximity to occupants and user-defined location, direction, and flow; the R-19 rigid expanded polystyrene (EPS) in the roof and the floor; and R-15 EPS in the walls.For more details on this project, including schematics and pictures, click here.

Best of Show: Permanent Modular. NRB, Inc. for Millmont Elementary School. This new 98,000 sq ft school combines elementary and magnet school programs and consists of 60,000 sq. ft. of modular construction for classrooms, offices, and media centers, and 38,000 sq ft of site built structure housing the gym, cafeteria, and mechanical spaces, all placed over an underground parking garage. The brick and concrete façade resembles a 1950’s school befitting the era of that neighborhood, and includes the original gargoyles salvaged from the old school. Inside is finished with painted drywall, beautifully patterned vinyl tile, carpeting and ceramic floors. It features unique architectural “halos” and colonial columns at entrances, and has arches and vaulted ceilings with pendant light fixtures. The “floor” of the triangular shaped courtyard towards the rear of the school is actually a “living roof” that has been installed over the mechanical room in the parking a garage below. This is a teaching tool for the 6th gr magnet school students studying agriculture. For more information on this award winner, click here.


Best of Show: Temporary Modular. Britco Structures for LUXE Sales Centre. Britco’s design team worked with the client’s architect, interior designer and sales team to turn their vision into a factory-built reality. The building is a pre-construction sales centre that incorporates the main reception area, closing offices and model room incorporating a scale model of the development’s four high-rise buildings slated for the site. The sales centre uses materials and finishes, inside and out, that are identical in look and feel to those of the finished development. To help facilitate sales, exact full-scale replicas of the suites are built within the sales centre so the prospective buyer can get a true sense of the finished product before they buy. For more information on this project, click here.



Best of Show: Renovated Reuse. Nortex Modular Space for its major projects office.
The administrative office building consists of three 14’ x 56’ units totaling 2,350 square feet and provides private offices, handicap restrooms, telcom room, conference room, reception and bullpen area. It was installed in an industrial park as an expansion to existing facilities and was designed to comply with the architectural requirements of the City of Lewisville. It featured a stucco exterior with poured-in-place concrete decks and the foundation consisted of monolithic concrete piers. A telcom room with its own separate HVAC system was provided along with specialized electrical circuits. For more information on this award winner, click here.



Best of Show: Marketing. Kidd & Co for Wilmot Modular Website. With individuals and companies using the internet to make their purchasing decisions, the Wilmot staff wanted their present customers as well as potential customers to have a clear, visual understanding of their products and services. Our objective was to redesign and enhance the website with an effective, user-friendly interface that would navigate well for leasing and custom-building target audiences as well as a tool for the sales reps to use when working with customers. The site also had to present well to a national audience, be consistent with Wilmot’s marketing strategy and flexible enough to adapt quickly to changing markets and business environments. In just a few clicks of the mouse, we needed to showcase the products, projects and services, educate the customers on the advantages of modular construction and the benefits of choosing Wilmot Modular while highlighting Wilmot’s diversity, experience and professionalism. For more information on this award winner, click here.


"The Best in Show category is the most competitive in our entire Awards of Distinction contest. Announcing the winners has become an integral part of every World of Modular," said Tom Hardiman, executive director of MBI. "This year's winners continue to demonstrate the high quality of accelerated construction, with the Best in Show winners achieving a special accolade. These entries were voted the best in our industry by business peers."