Builders' best.

PositionBuilding NC

From the world's fastest giga coaster to Winston-Salem's first downtown high-rise in a decade, commercial construction is back. The second annual Building North Carolina Awards, selected from projects completed between July 1,2014, and June 30,2015, showcase the most compelling structures based on their design, innovation and community impact.

BEST OVERALL DESIGN

MetLife Inc Global Technology Campus Cary

General contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie LLC, Birmingham, Ala.

Architect: Rule Joy Trammell & Rubio LLC, Atlanta Cost $110 million Size: 450,000 square feet

The insurance giant made good on a 2013 promise to move about 2,600 jobs from four Northeast states and California to North Carolina when its Global Technology Campus opened this summer in Cary The Wake County site has more than 1,000 workers in twin seven-story buildings, following MetLife's expansion in south Charlotte, where 1,500 are employed. The New York-based company, which is in line to receive as much as $89.2 million in state incentives over the next decade, focuses on software development in Cary and marketing and customer service in Charlotte. Amenities at the Cary campus include a fitness center and outdoor basketball court, coffee bars and rooms where employees can work at treadmill desks, play Xbox and scribble Ideas on the walls. Images of Snoopy and the Peanuts gang, who have promoted MetLife since 1985, dot the buildings and grounds, which include an outdoor amphitheater. Raleigh-based Highwoods Properties Inc. developed the 26.5-acre campus with the possibility of adding a third office building.

BEST MEDICAL PROJECT

Johnston Health Clayton Clayton

General contractor: T.A. Loving Co., Goldsboro

Architect Johnson Johnson Crabtree Architects PC, Nashville Cost: $50 million Size: 102,352-square-foot addition and 22,200-square-foot renovation

Clayton residents won't have to venture as far to receive medical care that previously required a trip to Raleigh or Smithfield. A new 50-bed inpatient tower includes a women's center with labor and delivery rooms, a pharmacy and an intensive-care unit. The large atrium and courtyard, cafeteria, chapel and children's area were designed to feel less like an institution and more like a luxury hotel. Last year, Chapel Hill-based UNC Health Care paid $57.6 million for partial ownership in the county health system, with most of the proceeds paying for the expansion. And it will likely not be the last. The hospital is equipped to handle 100...

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