Harper, KCI, and Renewable Water Resources (ReWa) are proud to announce that we have received a DBIA 2024 Design-Build Project Award in the Community Impact category for our work on the ReWa Memorial Garden project. The DBIA Award for Best Project in the Southeast Region recognizes design-build projects that represent the best of what the industry has to offer. These projects reflect those that achieve best-value while meeting design and construction quality, cost, and schedule goals.
This memorial garden serves as a sanctuary dedicated to commemorating ReWa’s Board of Commissioners for the past 100 years (1925 – 2025). The water feature within the garden is supplied with recycled water from ReWa’s Mauldin Road Water Resource Recovery Facility, offering visitors a distinctive opportunity to gain a first-hand look into ReWa’s wastewater treatment processes. This feature is part of a revitalization effort at ReWa’s original wastewater treatment plant. The vision is to educate the community on how wastewater is treated and recycled.
During the initial stages, ReWa determined that hiring KCI, Waterspirit (Specialty Waterscape Contractor), and Harper as a design-build team would provide the best value for their project. We worked to overcome several challenges such as reworking recycled water into the waterfall’s design and were able to use our creativity to produce a more sustainable and cost-effective result for the owner.
“Harper was heavily invested in the success of this project and led the Design-Build effort for this project to meet the goals and to alleviate the challenges presented by this project. Because of Harper’s dedication to the success of this project, the ReWa Memorial Garden will serve as a reminder to the community for generations to come that ReWa is committed to bettering the environment that we live in and will serve as that reminder to all who visit,” shared David DePratter, Regional Practice Leader at KCI.
Looking back on this project’s success, our teams are grateful and pleased with the use of the design-build approach to facilitate a collaborative, engaged, and solutions-oriented environment on this project. This approach allowed us to achieve the value that ReWa desired, while also driving the schedule, cost, and quality forward to the client’s satisfaction. While we initially assumed this project would be straightforward due to its small scale, we navigated many challenges to produce the desired outcome for ReWa and the surrounding community.
Due to the success of this project, now ReWa will have a sanctuary in the heart of their campus to serve as a memorial, appreciation for the hard work of past commissioners, and an educational and reflective space for the community to understand the impact of clean water for years to come.