James McHugh Construction Co. received an Award of Merit for their crane foundation design at Renelle on the River from the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois during their annual Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards Competition. Below is a brief description of the foundation that won them the award in the "Small Firm/Small Project" category.

Novel tower crane support scheme at 403 N Wabash to allow construction of a new 18 story high-rise on an existing operating 4 story parking garage.  This unique tower crane foundation utilizing two sloping W14 struts to support 5 ft thick reinforced concrete beam/mat placed at the top of the existing garage plaza level at upper Wabash Avenue that projected 18’ to the west of the property line and 8’ above the Upper Wabash Viaduct.  This project combined engineering technical challenges of supporting a crane on an existing structure without adding new deep foundations, accommodated restrictive site conditions of an operating parking facility and public way access requirements, while meeting demanding project schedule and budgetary constraints.

You can see the list of winners here.