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Announcing the 2025 LCI Lean in Design Award Winner

Announcing the 2025 LCI Lean in Design Award Winner

Congratulations to Cone Health Medical Center and Team!

The Lean Construction Institute (LCI) is pleased to recognize the awardee of the fifth annual LCI Lean in Design Award:

Cone Health Medical Center Asheboro
Asheboro, North Carolina

  • Cone Health: Project Owner
  • Perkins & Will: Architect
  • MEP Engineering: AEI Affiliated Engineers
  • Structural Engineering: Walter P. Moore
  • Robins & Morton: Construction

Partners include:

  • LIPD Consulting
  • Stimmel
  • Rock City Mechanical
  • Mid-Atlantic Infrastructure Systems, Inc.
  • Adams Electric Company

About the Winning Project

Cone Health’s Ambulatory Clinic and Cancer Treatment Center in Asheboro brings their vision for a healing, patient-centered campus to life. Surrounded by preserved forest, the design creates a calming, nature-integrated experience that supports physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. Through careful site placement, open views, and a welcoming porch, the team prioritized patient comfort, community connection, and environmental stewardship. Delivered through an Integrated Project Delivery approach, the team aligned the project’s vision, budget, and schedule using Lean methodology.

Driven by speed to market, future flexibility, and a commitment to becoming a destination for health and wellness, the Ambulatory Clinic and Cancer Treatment Center’s success was
measured by its ability to quickly deliver 51,000 SF of oncology and ambulatory care services while minimizing site disturbance.

Project obstacles included a tight budget with a compressed schedule, as well as program changes such as adding an ambulatory clinic after construction documents were complete. These shifts were enabled by collaborative problem-solving between the design and construction teams. Proactive procurement of long-lead MEP equipment and the use of Lean decision-making processes were critical to keeping the project on track. The team utilized the Choosing by Advantages method to directly support design excellence by enabling thoughtful, value-driven decisions. Ultimately, the team delivered a project that balances practical needs with a deeply healing-centered design.

Honorable Mention

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Arthur M. Blank Hospital
Atlanta, Georgia

  • Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: Project Owner
  • Esa, Page, FLAD, Hendrick: Architects
  • Brasfield & Gorrie, JE Dunn: Builders (CM/GC)
  • DaVinci-Winstead, Adams: Program Management Support
  • Lowe: Civil Engineer
  • HGOR: Landscape Architect
  • Walter P Moore: Structural Engineer
  • WSP: M/E/P/FP Engineer, Lighting Design

Honorable Mention

Canadian Nuclear Labs (CNL) New Builds
Kingston, Ontario

IPD Team:

  • Canadian Nuclear Laboratories: Owner
  • Sullivan Chandos (CNL) JV Corp.: Contractor

Design Partners:

  • HDR Architecture Associates, Inc.: Architect
  • LEA Consulting: Structural
  • Introba: Mechanical
  • Jp2g Consultants: Electrical and Civil

Trade Partners:

  • Timber: Nordic Structures
  • M/E Contractor: JMR Electric
  • Envelope: Flynn Canada Ltd.
  • Drywall and drywall system: Marcantonio
  • Furniture Systems: ABI/Advanced Building Interiors
  • Controls: Siemens

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 2025 LCI Design Award Planning Team Members and Design Award Jury Committee for their dedicated work:

2025 Design Award Planning Team: Bernita Beikmann, HKS, Inc.; Stan Chiu, HDR; Robert Johnson, SSOE; Romano Nickerson, Boulder Associates; Neelanjana Sen, Stantec; Andrea Sponsel, HKS, Inc.; Annmarie Thurnquist, Jacobs

2025 Design Award Jury Facilitators: Bernita Beikmann, HKS, Inc., and Stan Chiu, HDR

2025 Design Award Jury Committee: Michael Chapman; Nancy Clayton, Pickard Chilton; Kevin Matuszewski, John Hopkins Health System; Kurt Neubek, Page; Bill Whipple, Sutter Health

Honoring the Awardees at the 2025 LCI Congress

LCI received many impressive submissions and would like to extend our appreciation to all who submitted.

Awardees will be recognized on Thursday, October 23, at the 2025 LCI Congress Award Ceremony in Arlington, TX!