April 10, 2026 — Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN) of Houston, Texas, has earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 59th annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA). The award comes for the Building M61 Boiler Addition project at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas.
Originally constructed in the 1960s, the M61 utility plant had been operating with three aging boilers that could no longer meet current or future campus needs, forcing UTMB to rely on a costly temporary rental boiler for several years. What began as a capacity evaluation evolved into a comprehensive infrastructure upgrade designed to deliver a permanent, reliable solution while maintaining uninterrupted service to the medical campus. The project added a new high-pressure water-tube boiler capable of producing 35,000 pounds of steam per hour — effectively doubling the plant’s steam capacity.
Rather than expanding the building footprint, LAN’s design repurposed space previously occupied by decommissioned rotary kiln incinerators, minimizing new construction and reducing cost and disruption. The layout also accommodates a future second boiler, with structural systems, piping, and utilities sized to support long-term expansion. All critical equipment is elevated at least 25 feet above mean sea level using custom-designed structural platforms and maintenance walkways, ensuring reliable operation during hurricanes and storm surge events, and keeping the plant fully functional throughout construction.
Judging for the awards program took place in February and was conducted by a national 32-member panel of built environment leaders, along with experts from government, the media, and academia. Award criteria focused on uniqueness and originality, technical innovation, social and economic value, and excitement generated toward the engineering profession.
All 240 award winners — including 16 Honor Awards, eight Grand Awards, and the announcement of the prestigious Grand Conceptor Award for the year’s most outstanding overall engineering achievement — will take place at the 2026 EEA Gala on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC.
Learn more about the Building M61 Boiler Addition project at UTMB (PDF) at LAN, and about the Engineering Excellence Awards at ACEC. The American Council of Engineering Companies is the business association of America’s engineering industry, representing independent engineering firms and professionals throughout the U.S., along with public and private facilities. Founded in 1906 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., ACEC is a national federation of 51 state and regional organizations.
