Expansion Wins Regional “Best Health Care Project of 2009,” Advances to National Finals

The Louisiana Medical Center and Heart Hospital Expansion nabbed Best Health Care Project of 2009 honors from McGraw-Hill’s South Central Construction magazine. The competition recognizes construction and design excellence from the past year. All “Best in Category” and “Best Overall” regional winners advance to McGraw-Hill Construction’s National Awards Competition. The regional winners will be honored at a luncheon on December 3rd, in Baton Rouge and their projects also will be featured in the December issue of South Central Construction.

“This is a new level of prestige for the company,” said Bill McDonnel, Director of Business Development. “We submitted two projects and received awards on both. On a scale of one to ten, it’s a ten. We’re very pleased.”

The McDonnel Group also received an award of Excellence for Lakeshore High School. Projects were judged on criteria including project summary data, teamwork and project management, safety, innovation, contribution to the community or industry, overcoming difficult challenges, construction quality & craftsmanship, and function & aesthetic quality of the design. The McDonnel team members on the Louisiana Medical Center and Heart Hospital Expansion included: Grayson Bultman, Project Manager ; Kirk Laborde, Project Superintendent; Jason Schaubhut, Foreman; Stuart Helo, Project Engineer; Heather Ellis, Administrative Assistant; Tony Montalbano, Vice President, Field Operations; Jason Zuckerman, Project Management Director; and David McDonnel, Vice President, Estimating.