Dive Brief:

• Government buildings are usually bland, but that's not true for the structures chosen for awards in this year's design competition for General Services Administration buildings.
• More than 80 projects went to a selection committee of private-sector professionals, who chose 20, and seven of them received the highest Honor Award.
• Among the seven were ports of entry – border stations – in Van Buren, Maine, and Blaine, Washington.

Dive Insight:

The projects that were eligible for the competition had to have either their designs approved or construction completed between 2008 and last year. There several federal office buildings among the 20 winners along with an outdoor plaza in New York City and an IRS computing center in Kearneysville, West Virginia.