Setting the Standard for Urban & Green Infrastructure: ISG’s Market District Wins 2024 YEA Summit Award

As 2024 draws to a close in its final month, the AEC industry is yet again wrapping up what has become a benchmark year.  As a means of commemorating and celebrating such a momentous year, we are proud to announce the 2024 Yearbook of Engineering Achievement, including our 2024 Summit Award winners ISG who took the top spot for their innovative use of urban and green infrastructure in Des Moines.

As reflects the achievements of the industry it is meant to celebrate, the 2024 YEA competition soared to new heights this year with ten projects from different states across the country.  As the online voting period began, perennial YEA winners Halff entered into an early lead with their submission featuring the RM 620 Railroad Overpass and Roundabout in Round Rock, Texas.  Halff, who has been among those honored in the Yearbook of Engineering Achievement in the past, entered the 2024 competition with a project that was years in the making before vastly improving a major east-west arterial roadway through road widening, medians, sidewalks, overpasses, improved at-grade railroad crossings, and much more while ultimately delivering solutions that yielded significant community and environmental impacts.

Another project that emerged as an early contender for the top spot was TYLin’s Great Water Alliance Program in Waukesha, Wisconsin.  Their first appearance in the Yearbook of Engineering Achievement, TYLin entered the 2024 competition with an incredibly strong project in which they helped a city of 72,000 residents solve a critical water issue while incorporating sustainable practices that protect the environment and sustain the Great Lakes Watershed.  Tracing a thread of newcomers to the YEA competition, another firm making their first appearance in the YEA competition in 2024, J2, made a splash in the voting totals through the first week of online voting.  J2’s project, featuring the Watson Mountain Middle School, battled for the top spot, intriguing voters with their $111 million project in Loudoun County, Virginia.  J2’s submission for the 2024 YEA competition demonstrated a clear impact on the local community, as the project delivered a 211,000-gsf middle school with associated parking, bus loop, and athletic fields.

As the second week of voting wore on, however, it soon became clear that one project was beginning to separate from the pack and set itself apart as the top project in the 2024 YEA competition.  Another firm making their first appearance in the competition, the results indicate that ISG was able to set itself apart from a group of stellar projects as the 2024 Summit Award winner.  ISG’s submission focuses on their Market District project, which aimed to rejuvenate 30-acres of the East Village neighborhood in Des Moines.  The project features over 80 bioretention cells, bioswales, and a water quality basin that were designed to treat around 20 million gallons of water per year prior to reaching the Des Moines River.  In addition to a focus on the importance of water, the Market District project sets a new standard for urban and green infrastructure by serving as a model for future redevelopment efforts.

As you read through this year’s class of the Yearbook of Engineering Achievement and share in this moment of celebration, let these projects also serve as a model for our ambitions in the new year.  By daring and executing plans, often lasting a decade or more, the projects that represent the 2024 YEA winning class are a testament to ambition and dedication—laying the foundation for a bright future to come for the AEC industry.

Click here to view Civil+Structural Engineer Media’s 2024 Yearbook of Engineering Achievement: