Announcing the 2026 LCI Lean in Design Award Winner
Congratulations to Canadian Canoe Museum, Unity Design Studio Inc., and Team!
The Lean Construction Institute (LCI) is pleased to recognize the awardee of the sixth annual LCI Lean in Design Award:
Canadian Canoe Museum
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
- Canadian Canoe – Museum Owner
- Unity Design Studio Inc. – Architect
- LEA Consulting Ltd. – Structural Design Engineering Partner
- Kelson Mechanical – Mechanical Trade Partner
- D.G. Biddle and Associates – Mechanical and Electrical Consultants
- Lancer Electrical – Electrical Trade Partner
- Basterfield & Associates – Landscape
- Engage Engineering Ltd. – Civil Engineering
- Chandos Construction – Contractor
- JHO Consulting – Conservation
About the Winning Project
The Canadian Canoe Museum safeguards the world’s largest collection of paddled watercraft in a purpose-built home, where preservation, learning, craft, and lived experience come together. Designed to protect the full collection to Class A conservation standards while opening new ways to encounter the stories it holds, the museum turns stewardship into public experience. Through Integrated Project Delivery, designers, builders, trades, and the museum worked as one team to align ambition with any practical constraints. The result is a place where the collection comes alive through wood, water, craft, and story.
The project exemplifies the tenets of Lean delivery to produce value-added outcomes:
- The team used big room as the primary connection point to drive decision analysis and coordination.
- The team scaled the use of Lean methods to the project needs.
- The team developed a culture of respect, emphasizing shared input at all stages of development.
- The project team utilized Integrated Project Delivery and Target Value Delivery to test and confirm value-based aspects of the project as a means of protecting and advancing them to the finished design.
- Plus-delta reflection among the team is carrying forward into future work.
Honorable Mention
Connecticut Children’s New Clinical Tower
Hartford, Connecticut
- Connecticut Children’s – Owner
- Cannon Design – Design
- DPR Construction – General Contractor
- Colliers Project Leaders – Project Management
- Salas & O’Brien – Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Engineer
- Fuss & O’Neill – Civil Engineer and Landscape Architect
- Rising Terrain – Lean Consultant
About the Award
The Lean Construction Institute (LCI) Design Award recognizes project teams that deliver outstanding design while advancing the industry through collaborative Lean Project Delivery. The purpose of this award is to encourage the adoption of Lean approaches and methods to improve project outcome and elevate design.
While the focus is on the design elements, the LCI Lean in Design Award recognizes an entire project team. This includes the engineers, designers, architects, clients, and builders who work collaboratively to improve the whole design and construction process start to finish. The design firms on these projects are examples of design excellence; they have brought Lean to the design space.
Submissions were scored by factor:
- Design Aesthetic (50%)
- How Lean tenets were used to achieve the final project (50%)
- Respect for People
- Generation of Value
- Optimize the Whole
- Continuous Improvement
- Removal of Waste
- Process/Flow
- Cost and Schedule Approach
Thank you to the 2026 Design Award Jury Facilitators and Committee for their dedicated work:
2026 Design Award Jury Facilitators: Bernita Beikmann, HKS, Inc., and Stan Chiu, HDR
2026 Design Award Jury Committee: Kevin Matuszewski, John Hopkins Health System; Kurt Neubek, Stantec; Romano Nickerson, BA; Bill Whipple, Sutter Health
Honoring the Awardees at the 2026 LCI Congress
LCI received many impressive submissions and would like to extend our appreciation to all those who submitted.
Awardees will be recognized on Thursday, October 15, at the 2026 LCI Congress Award Ceremony in Atlanta, Georgia!
