The video celebrates the BB&T Leadership Institute being named CoreNet Global’s Project of the Year. Speakers—including project team members, architects, and builders—describe the institute’s award‑winning design, which weaves the building into a forested lakeside site with three large oak trees and abundant natural light. They highlight seven distinct collaboration spaces that blend residential‑style living rooms with traditional conference rooms to foster self‑awareness and discovery among emerging leaders. The construction team recounts the complex, challenging nature of the build and how strong teamwork turned potential conflict into a positive outcome. Finally, they reflect on the institute’s purpose: a transformative environment where young leaders develop self‑awareness, collaborate, and ultimately impact the world.
Chapters
Cornet Carolina's Project of the Year. Congratulations, BB&T Leadership Institute.
One of my favorite things was every morning at sunrise, watch the geese fly in over the lake.
Every corner you turn around, there's something that sort of gathers your attention and puts you in this mode of discovery. Space matters a lot, and it's particularly what we're doing and what we're trying to do here. For leadership development, our calling card has always been self-awareness. You know, we have We have what we actually call collaboration spaces in the building, and these spaces are really unique. They're all different. There's 7 of them. Some of them have a more residential sort of living room feel to them. Some of them look like a traditional conference room. They allow people to sort of relax and interact with each other in whatever way is most comfortable for them.
The evolution of the treehouse, it really worked around the existing trees. We have 3 large oak trees, and it's really positioned and plopped in a way that you're in the canopy of the trees, so it feels like the limbs are hugging you, and it's just— I just think it's a good extension of nature. Every corner that you turn, there's natural light, whether you're going down a corridor or whether you're going into a space, like for instance in the guest rooms, you've got the large expanse of glass looking into the lake. You've got that pathway, you can always see daylight.
Josh, our foreman with Bloom Construction, said this project had all the makings of us not to really be happy with each other when it was done. And the exact opposite is actually true.
This is the kind of project that people really want to work on. Very, very interesting design, very complex project, very challenging project, and so that, that makes it fun. I know that I will never build another structure like this in an environment like this. I went through the program before we started construction on this, so I know personally how this Leadership Institute changes lives. Think about the leaders the young leaders that will come into this place and will leave and have an actual effect on the world, that is— it doesn't get any better than that. To see a building kind of acquiesce with the land around it, I mean, it's just special. You don't do it every day.
