SIPA announced the winners of the 21th Annual Building Excellence Awards at its member meeting on March 7, 2023. One of the most prominent offsite construction award programs, the Building Excellence Awards showcase the projects that best demonstrate the design flexibility, long-lasting energy performance and resiliency of structural insulated panels (SIPs).
Enercept is honored and proud to be the recipient of three of the Building Excellence Awards in 2023.
The D.C. Booth National Fish Hatchery Shop Building in Spearfish, SD was the winner in the Agricultural Category.
The DC Booth Fish Hatchery Shop Building is used for storage. It has a maintenance/wood shop area and is a garage for the fish transport truck.
The builders had worked with SIPs on previous projects. They were familiar with the process and felt that the installation was simple. The job site was relatively small, with a narrow entrance. This made moving the large (jumbo) SIP panels somewhat cumbersome. Even with this challenge, the builder was able to realize the time benefit of using SIPs.
The 8" SIP walls and 12" SIP roof enclose a pre-engineered steel frame.
As per local building code, the building was engineered to meet IBC 2018 building code.
Established in 1896, D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery and Archives, formerly Spearfish National Fish Hatchery, is one of the oldest operating hatcheries in the country dedicated to fish culture and resource management. In the early days of the fish hatchery, fish were transported by railcar or boat to their final destination. Modern times allow the fish to be transported by a specialized fish truck. None of the existing buildings were large enough to accommodate the fish truck. The shop building has a large bay explicitly
designed for the fish truck.
Utilizing SIPs for the Fish Hatchery Shop Building demonstrates an efficient solution to quickly enclose and insulate steel-frame construction.
Family Lake Home on Lake Metigoshe, ND was the winner in the Single Family Homes over 3,000 sq. ft.
Nostdahl Liptack Architects have used SIPs in several of their previous projects and sold the family on the precision of construction, speed of construction, strength, and energy efficiency. As they did more research and they decided that building with SIPs was the only way to go.
The home is located on Lake Metigoshe. The lake borders Bottineau County, North
Dakota and Winchester, Manitoba. This home is located one mile from the Canadian
border. The SIP panels were engineered to support a roof snow load of 42 PSF and ground snow load of 50 PSF.
The home is a complete SIP project, including the garage and walk-out basement
wall.
The Sage School, Quigley Campus in Hailey, ID consists of four separate SIP/Timber Frame structures. The Sage School Barn and three studio classrooms. This project won First Runner-Up in the Commercial/Industrial/Institutional Buildings over 10,000 sq. ft.
Sage School is a private school for grades 6-12.
Alan Bernholtz, Wind River Timber Frames, specified Enercept SIPs in their bid. Alan has been been enclosing his timber frames with Enercept SIPs since 2002. Mr. Bernholtz believes that SIPs are the standard for timber frames. He added that they make
a quick and energy-efficient enclosure.
The school desired concept was a western, early year design using timberframe construction. The buildings were also designed with the goal of energy efficiency. The barn features a massive 29' ridge skylight that extending 7' on either side of the slope to provide natural lighting. All four buildings utilize solar panel energy.
Drought tolerant native grass (Sage grass short mix) makes up most of the lawn. Water-efficient turf grass was planted on the activity field. Landscape valve-controlled irrigation with weather sensor ground units and low flow head drop systems.
They use reclaimed water for irrigation and toilet fill systems from development-planned capture systems.
The Sage School sits at the edge of a 1,200-acre conservation easement at Quigley Farm in Hailey. Students have abundant access to wilderness, restoration projects, and open space. It is an independent school with a mission of fostering a sense of self, a sense of place, and a sense of community in its students. Their goal is to create an environment that honors adolescents and helps to build a thriving community.
The Barn opened for occupancy in December 2022. It is used for classrooms, a state-of-the-art kitchen (science lab), offices, a library, and public space for events and student meals.
In addition to the four timber structures, three modular buildings were relocated from the original campus. Bill Shaw (Lee Gilman Construction) says, "The school is a state-of-the-art property, and a member of the community, Lee Gilman, The subcontractors, and Sage School are very proud of the end project; any award achieved by the efforts would be welcome."
Since the inception of the SIPA Building Excellence Awards, Enercept has taken home more than 21 awards.
Enercept President, Charlie Ewalt, says, "This is a great reflection on our whole team. We do good things!"
According to the SIPA website:
"The Building Excellence Awards gives SIP builders, designers and manufacturers an opportunity to showcase exemplary residential and commercial projects completed between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022. To be eligible for an award, SIPs must have been used on at least 50 percent of the building envelope, determined by square footage of the exterior walls and roof. The 2023 Building Excellence Award judges evaluated each project on multiple criteria, including design and structural engineering innovation, creative use of SIP construction, environmental sustainability and energy efficiency."
The SIPA Building Excellence Awards entries and winners represent a small percentage of the forward-thinking SIP projects produced in the United States. In 2023 Enercept entered eight projects in the competition - less than 3% of the SIP projects Enercept produced in 2022.
View more innovative projects from Enercept:
