November 2, 2018

Cade Museum Named ENR Southeast's Best Project of the Year

Cade Museum Named ENR Southeast's Best Project of the Year

Since opening its doors to the public in May, the Cade Museum for Creativity + Invention has received praise and admiration from staff and visitors, as well as several notable awards, including ENR Southeast's top award.

Located in Gainesville, FL, the museum was recently selected from among 90 entries across the Southeast, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee to win Engineering News Record's (ENR) Southeast 2018 Best Small Project Award, classified by projects that are $10 million and under.

Even more exciting, each year one project is chosen from among all submissions to win the year's top recognition, and we are proud to say that the Cade Museum was the recipient of the distinguished ENR Southeast 2018 Best Overall Regional Project of the Year Award! This is the first time a small project has ever won the overall award. The jury praised the museum for achieving intent within budget and noted that there were bigger projects that could have won, but they all agreed this project rose above. As the winner of Best Regional Project of the Year Award, the Cade Museum is automatically in the running for the ENR National Awards.

Visit the Cade Museum project page to read about the facility's thoughtful design.

"The building structure alone is just full of creativity. ... It's putting Gainesville on the map."

—Lissa Campbell, City Beautification Board Chair

In addition to the ENR Southeast Awards, in the spring, the City of Gainesville Beautification Board hosted their annual awards ceremony which honors and celebrates the beautification of structures and projects throughout the city. They handed out 20 awards recognizing some of the year's most unique projects in terms of land use, design, planning, and compatibility with surrounding areas, and honored the Cade Museum with one of the year's top awards—Outstanding Institutional Award. The board's chair, Lissa Campbell, said that the museum was recognized for its design and location within Depot Park.

The museum is named after Dr. Robert Cade, inventor of the sports drink Gatorade and a former professor at the University of Florida. When Dr. Cade fell ill, his daughter, Phoebe Miles, was inspired to create a museum of creativity, invention, and ideas in her father’s honor with a mission is to inspire future inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries.

The new 25,000-SF facility features a creativity lab, fabrication lab, interactive exhibits, travelling exhibits, classrooms, outdoor events terraces, and a gift shop. The museum provides experiential, hands-on learning for visitors of all ages, and hosts many programs and events. Connecting the building with its setting, views to the surrounding reclaimed Depot Park are offered throughout the visitor experience.

Since opening in May, the museum has hosted hundreds of visitors, programs, and events, documenting just about everything on their Facebook page. Check it out to learn about upcoming programs and events.

"You could put this in the middle of New York City or Chicago and it would stand out."

—Stephanie Bailes, Cade Museum, Executive Director