Building Transformations presented its Professional Achievement Award to Joe Geluch, president of Naikoon Contracting in North Vancouver.

The award is given to a member who has made a significant and meaningful contribution to the advancement of digital innovation and transformation within the building and infrastructure industry in Canada.

The Innovation Spotlight Awards are presented in a variety of categories including Construction Management, Academic,  Design and Engineering, Digital Products, Digitalization Strategy, Digital Supply Chain, Project Delivery and Asset Management, and Research.

The annual awards benchmark innovation by honouring projects, companies and technologies that are forming new best practices and shaping how the sector operates.

Since 2010, Geluch has built Naikoon into a 50-person digitally sophisticated construction management company and certified Passive House builder, delivering high-performance residential and commercial projects across B.C.

Under Geluch’s vision and leadership, Naikoon is now fully digital, utilizing 4D virtual design and construction (VDC) delivery methods across projects, from small houses to multi-storey commercial buildings.

As a small business owner, he demonstrates that digital transformation and innovation can happen at any scale. He has proactively invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into the adoption of virtual design and construction at Naikoon and brought on a team of international experts to advance the organization’s building processes.

Other 2023 award winners were:

1. Construction Management: UofT Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre – Full Circle Tech Deployment, EllisDon
2. Design and Engineering: TimberX – Leveraging Digital Innovation to Expand Knowledge of Mass Timber, WSP
3. Research: OpenBIM Web App for Decarbonizing Built Environment, National Research Council Canada
4. Digital Products: GAMMA AR, GAMMA Technologies
5. Digital Supply Chain: SIMPLER – CAD to CAM, Modern Niagara
6. Digitalization Strategy: Effective Construction Dashboards, Bird Construction
7. Academic: Neural Search for Intuitive BIM Data Query, École de technologie supérieure (ETS)
8. Asset Management & Lifecycle: From Legacy to Leadership: Montréal Parc olympique’s Digital Transformation, Parc olympique
9. Entrepreneurship & Startups: Platforms for Life (P4L) – A Mass Timber Product Platform for Urban Housing, Intelligent City.