The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) has named the winners of its 2016 Distinguished Design-Build Leadership Awards. According to DBIA, the awards are presented to individuals who have demonstrated leadership in the advancement of effective design-build practices and in the promotion of design-build as the project delivery method of choice. The award winners were announced during DBIA's annual Design-Build Conference & Expo, November 2-4, in Las Vegas.

"These four people we are honoring are leaders in the design-build community who have distinguished themselves in advancing the understanding, availability, and use of design-build project delivery as an effective and efficient delivery method. Their leadership in promoting ‘Design-Build Done Right’ has been invaluable to the industry," said Lisa Washington, CAE, the executive director and CEO of DBIA.

In the legislator category, Representative Lincoln Hough of the Missouri State Legislature was honored. Rep. Hough successfully sponsored and passed HB 2376, authorizing political subdivisions such as cities, counties, and school districts throughout the state of Missouri to use design-build. His work on the issue began in 2015 when he first sponsored the legislation and continued in 2016 because he understood the importance of this issue to the industry and public owners.

Brett Tullis, principal architect with Sillman Wright Architects, was honored in the industry professional category. In addition to his achievements as an architect, Tullis has pursued a second career as an educational volunteer, bringing the concept of design-build to people and students that have limited knowledge or experience of the profession. He played a vital role in establishing the only DBIA student chapter in Southern California at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design, where he and members of his staff also served as advisors and design jurors for a mock student/professional design-build project.

Dave McCool, director of virtual design and construction at McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., was the winner of the young professional category. McCool has degrees in psychology and construction management, and according to DBIA, he has a unique perspective on the impact of human behavior on team relationships and has become an advocate for the best practices that make design-build delivery most successful. McCool has advocated for DBIA's Best Practices on a global platform, even writing a book featuring a section on the benefits and correlation of BIM and design-build which is being translated into French and Chinese in order to be used in 25 universities worldwide. Most recently, he founded a global non-profit whose mission is to use technology to break down the silos of owner, architect, engineer, and contractor in order to implement the teachings of DBIA.

Darryl VanMeter, P.E., state innovative delivery administrator for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), was the winner in the owner category. VanMeter volunteered to lead GDOT's first design-build project more than 10 years ago. As a result of VanMeter actively partnering with the design-build team, federal partners, and GDOT staff, the $80 million interchange project was a success, completed in just 18 months. Since then, he has led the GDOT Office of Innovative Delivery, which has awarded nearly $2 billion of design-build contracts. VanMeter has convinced them to steadily adopt DBIA's Best Practices. His advocacy within the department has been the catalyst for legislative changes that have widely permitted the use of design-build in Georgia, including Best Value selection.