A joint venture between Herzog and Stacy & Witbeck was awarded last week for building a sensory garden to benefit the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired in Kansas City, Missouri. As a result, the group was named the AGC in the Community Award Winner by the charitable arm of AGC of America, AGC Charities, Inc.

"These construction groups are using their craft, their dedication and their hearts to make life better for the people in their community who most need the help," Scott Williams, chairman of AGC Charities and president of Springfield, Oregon-based Hamilton Construction Co. "These award winners are showing the industry and the broader public that outside of their tough facades, most contractors have pretty soft hearts."

During the construction of the new Kansas City Downtown Streetcar Project, Herzog and Stacy & Witbeck discovered that a local school, the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired, hoped to develop an abandoned adjacent lot. The team worked with school leaders, designers and other stakeholders to transform the lot into an 18,000-sq-ft sensory garden. This garden helps children with visual impairments learn to navigate through life surfaces within the safety of the garden. 

The garden includes many different surfaces, such as brick pavers, concrete walks, manhole lids, tactile pavers, and a replica of a streetcar track crossing. The work was completed by volunteers from the streetcar project, and was supported by streetcar designers, subcontractors and suppliers. Much of the work was completed on evenings and weekends during the streetcar project, over the course of a year. 

Other work included constructing new parking and recreation areas, landscaping, paving, road construction and pipe installation. The chapter engaged 44 member companies in these projects, which provided labor, equipment and materials, and nearly 100 volunteers coordinated and worked on-site. 

AGC in the Community Award winners are selected by a panel of judges representing all areas of construction.  Award entries were evaluated based on the level of commitment, the scope of the philanthropic efforts and the quality of the benefits to the community.