Buro Happold Helps Lead Numerous Higher-Ed Sustainability Projects
By SCN Staff
LOS ANGELES AND NEW YORK, N.Y., April 13, 2020—Reflecting its innovative, multidisciplinary, approach to sustainable campuses, buildings and places, the integrated engineering consultancy Buro Happold has announced a number of major new sustainability-driven higher education projects underway at colleges and universities across the United States that address the climate emergency the world is currently facing.
Developed in collaboration with leading architecture firms – including Grimshaw Architects, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), Moore Ruble Yudell, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ), KieranTimberlake, Behnisch Architekten, Snøhetta, Henning Larsen and others – Buro Happold’s new university projects range in scale from standalone academic buildings to larger educational complexes to entire multiphase campus master plans. Buro Happold also leads campus sustainability plans, a critical new specialty. The firm also brings decades of experience with environmental modeling, strategic mobility planning, engineered systems design, and pioneering use of structural materials and construction methods for iconic, highly sustainable campus buildings.
Engaged with a number of higher education clients, Buro Happold is helping to develop comprehensive sustainability plans, such as at the University of North Carolina, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of California, San Diego. The firm is also providing expertise on sustainability and wellbeing, outdoor thermal comfort, and pedestrian flow modeling for College of the Desert’s new Palm Springs campus.
As a result of the firm’s commitment to a net-zero carbon future and its focus on human wellbeing, Buro Happold has emerged as the leading provider of sustainability services for forward-looking colleges and universities throughout the country. The firm’s success in the higher education sector with a number of repeat clients is underscored by a multidisciplinary approach to planning and design coupled with demonstrated expertise managing complex project stakeholder relationships across all scales.
Notable recent university work includes:
Washington University in St. Louis.: Buro Happold has provided integrated engineering services that incorporate the principles of sustainable design with attention to energy efficiency, low-impact materials, reuse and recycling, quality and durability, and health and wellness for nine structures across this campus.
Among these notable works, Buro Happold provided extensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and egress modeling for the Olin Business School. Designed by Moore Ruble Yudell with Mackey Mitchell Architects, it is one of the first passively smoke-vented atriums in the United States. Most recently, Buro Happold’s scope of work on the 18-acre East End Campus included partnering again with Moore Ruble Yudell and Mackey Mitchell to design Jubel Hall as well as with architects KieranTimberlake on four structures including two glazed pavilions, Weil Hall, and an expansion of Kemper Art Museum.
Arizona State University, Phoenix: Buro Happold is providing integrated engineering services including structures and mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems along with energy modeling, lighting and daylighting design, and sustainability consulting for the 55,000-square-foot Thunderbird School of Global Management. Designed by Moore Ruble Yudell and Jones Studio, the building is in construction and expected to open in 2021, and represents just one of three projects at ASU involving Buro Happold’s full multidisciplinary services. Others include the Ennead-designed ASU Beus Center for Law & Society in downtown Phoenix, recently completed and pursuing LEED Gold, as well as Grimshaw’s new Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 7, which is scheduled to open in late 2021 and is pursuing LEED Gold.
University of California, Los Angeles: With 30 projects on University of California campuses and 16 at UCLA alone, Buro Happold has provided integrated expertise on a wide range of facilities on campus including general classrooms, professional schools, state-of- the-art labs, and housing. Most recently, the firm delivered MEP and fire-protection engineering, IT services, lighting design, daylight modeling and energy modeling for the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science’s new laboratory complex, housing the 60,000-square-foot Western Institute of Nanotechnology on Green Engineering and the 90,000-square-foot Computer Science department. Along with significant energy cost savings, Buro Happold also specified solar renewable and water-recycling technologies to dramatically minimize energy and water consumption for the LEED Gold- certified complex.
Cornell Tech, Roosevelt Island, N.Y.: Buro Happold provided feasibility studies, energy analysis and passive systems design as well as MEP and structural engineering and lighting design for The House at Cornell Tech, a 26-floor housing tower designed by Handel Architects, that is the world’s largest and tallest Passive House-certified residential building. The House is part of Cornell University’s larger urban island campus, which Buro Happold is also helping develop according to the university’s wider commitment to innovative sustainability. Buro Happold also recently partnered with international architecture firm Snøhetta to deliver the Verizon Executive Education Center – a conference center “suited for visionary thinkers” that blends high design and human-centered technology, expected to open this year.