Hey, wasn't the National Building Museum the perfect place for the 5th biennial Builders' Ball Saturday night? First of all, it's got the very name "building" in it. But it was also big enough to contain not only the 1000 plus industry folks who came to revel in the networking and music — but also several mountains of food as well. We did our reportorial duty and carefully inspected the four different food courts at opposite ends of the cavernous Great Hall: Moroccan, Brazilian, Asian, and European, or so it seemed to us. And hats off to Darrel Rippeteau, who not only chaired the event but is its original founder, and this year banned black tie and table assignments in the interest of informal mingling that people really crave. Most important, he handed out $50,000 checks to several wonderful local charities (see below).

Herewith, a few of our snapshots from the evening:

A Lot of Presidents. Oncore Construction presidentBob MacDaniels and wife Suzi join Manhattan Construction president Ted Baker and Associated Builders and Contractors of Metro Washingtonpresident Debbie Schoonmaker.

Family Affair. Miller & Long head of business development Brett McMahon brought both wife Allysonand mother Dade.

Kings of Concrete. Miller & Long chairman John McMahon andpresident Nick Paleologos..

Triumverate. WDG Architecture's Robert Sockwellwith SmithGroup's Esther Simon and DCBIA's Silvia Dumitrescu.

Doubletake. Studios Architecture's Leslie McMullenand Jane Gustafson with Gensler's Lisa Buchanan.

Good Cause. Builders' Ball founder and chairmanDarrel Rippeteau, right, with charity reps Hannah Moore (AHC, Inc.), Lindsey Buss (Martha's Table), and Mary Fitch (CanStruction).