Building More Than Washington

3 hours ago

4 min read

On October 7, 2026, the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum became a gathering place for the people whose work is reshaping metropolitan Washington; not only through concrete, steel and infrastructure, but through business ownership, workforce development and access to opportunity.

The Metro DC Hispanic Contractors Association welcomed more than 500 construction executives, entrepreneurs, public officials and community leaders to its sold-out 2026 Annual Gala. Held under the theme Building the Future Together, the evening marked more than four decades of the association’s work on behalf of Hispanic, minority-owned and historically underserved businesses. The association’s official program described the gala as a celebration of leadership and collaboration across the region.

Dr. Bruno Mazali, FQM’s Washington, D.C. correspondent, attended the event on behalf of French Quarter Magazine, extending FQM’s coverage of the people, institutions and private enterprises shaping the capital beyond its monuments and diplomatic corridors.

Construction is sometimes described almost entirely through projects: the bridge completed, the hospital opened, the housing built or the development approved. The gala offered another perspective. Every major project also represents a network of contractors, skilled tradespeople, designers, suppliers, entrepreneurs and workers whose contributions are not always visible once the ribbon has been cut.

That distinction was central to the evening’s awards.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser received the 2026 Legacy Award. The official gala program recognized her administration’s investments in housing, schools, transportation, health care and neighborhood redevelopment, as well as major projects such as the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, Walter Reed redevelopment, Reservoir District, St. Elizabeths East and the RFK campus. The award placed particular emphasis on the opportunities these investments can create for local contractors, workers and small businesses.

The Regional Champion Award was presented to Tanisha Lewis, vice president for Regulatory Compliance and Community Engagement at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. The program credited Lewis with helping develop the authority’s small-business outreach efforts and strengthening connections between small and diverse companies and potential contracting opportunities. During her service as interim vice president of Supply Chain Management, she also contributed to procurement strategies connected with planned development at Washington Dulles International Airport.

Luz Eleane Martinez received the Community Champion Award for her record of public service and community engagement in the District. Formerly chief of staff to D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, Martinez was recognized for bringing residents, public institutions and decision-makers together and for working to ensure that communities have a meaningful voice in decisions affecting their future.

The Small Business Advocate Award went to Salvadoran American leader Jackie Reyes-Yanes, whose service to Washington spans more than three decades. After leading both the Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs and the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs, she now serves as director of Strategic Business and Workforce Development for the RFK campus redevelopment team. Her work focuses on connecting a major public investment with contracts, jobs, apprenticeships and training for District residents, Certified Business Enterprises and small local firms.

Washington native Dashlen Garcia, a soprano, composer and performer studying jazz at Howard University, appeared as a special musical guest. Her participation gave the evening an important cultural dimension: a reminder that a city’s future is created not only through its physical structures, but through the artists and young voices who give those spaces meaning.

The setting itself reinforced that idea. The Kogod Courtyard, shared by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, brings contemporary architecture into the heart of two historic buildings. Hosting a gathering devoted to construction, entrepreneurship and civic opportunity within that space made the evening’s message tangible: architecture is never merely a backdrop. It records what a society chooses to build, preserve and make accessible.

The gala also revealed the scale of private-sector participation behind regional development. Its sponsors represented major contractors, engineering firms, financial institutions, public agencies, utilities and locally owned businesses. Gilbane and SPD Contracting appeared as Legacy Sponsors, while the wider sponsor roster included firms and institutions such as Clark Construction, Miller & Long, Turner Construction, Whiting-Turner, Washington Gas, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and the D.C. Department of Employment Services.

Sponsorship alone does not guarantee meaningful participation for smaller businesses. The more consequential question is whether relationships formed at events like this translate into contracts, supplier access, financing, training and long-term business growth. That is where associations such as MDCHCA have an important role: helping entrepreneurs move from being present in the room to participating in the economic future being planned there.

For FQM, the evening offered a valuable view of Washington beyond its familiar image as a city of politics and diplomacy. The capital is also a city of builders, immigrant entrepreneurs, family businesses and skilled workers. Its architecture and infrastructure are expressions of public ambition, but they are also products of private enterprise, technical knowledge and human labor.

The phrase Building the Future Together can easily become ceremonial language. At its most meaningful, however, it describes something specific: ensuring that the people who live in a changing city also have the relationships, information and opportunities required to help construct it.