AEI Among the Country’s Top 10 Engineering Firms
2018 BD+C Giants 300 Report is released, ranking the nation’s largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms.
Now in its 42nd year, Building Design+Construction‘s annual Giants 300 report ranks AEC firms by discipline and across more than 20 building sectors and specialty services. More than 480 U.S.-based architecture, engineering, and construction firms participated in the 2018 Giants 300 report. Affiliated Engineers is the AEC industry’s leading technical consulting firm for uniquely complex large-scale building, energy, and utility projects, and is honored to be recognized as a Top Ten Engineering Firm. Keep reading to see how well AEI ranked in other sectors.
BD+C Engineering + EA Firms Ranking: #7
What makes AEI rank so well? Projects like this: Seattle Children’s
AEI’s long-term client Seattle Children’s was running out of research space. The 13-story Building Cure is a purpose-built institutional research building, dedicated to transformative therapies for children with serious illnesses. The client’s researchers are studying immunotherapy treatments, which reprogram a child’s own immune system to fight cancer. The trials are producing remarkable results – and have already saved lives.
Scheduled to open in 2019, Building Cure is close to two of the institute’s other facilities, including a building designed by AEI almost 10 years ago. The 410,000-square foot new building will have offices, research laboratories, lab support spaces, animal resources, and conference and educational functions.
Part of the building will be dedicated to a good manufacturing practice (GMP) facility that will translate laboratory discoveries into cell therapies for patients using immunotherapy and gene therapy. The state-of-the-art facility will be able to process cell therapy products for up to 1,000 patients per year, an increase over the current capacity of 150. Flad Architects are part of the Building Cure team.
BD+C Science + Technology Sector Ranking: #2
What makes AEI rank so high? Projects like this: Nanoengineering and Sciences Building – University of Washington
The University of Washington’s College of Engineering leads research to develop new energy and health technologies. In the interest of advancing these technologies, the University must provide the necessary educational and research infrastructure for new technologies and instrumentation that measure and manipulate at the nanoscale.
Nanoengineering research requires a very quiet site with low vibration levels and low electromagnetic interference (EMI); however, tunnel construction for a light rail extension to the UW campus and the subsequent operation of the rail line presented significant limitations to providing cutting-edge work, since most the University’s engineering buildings are located near the new Sound Transit light rail line. The issue was solved with a negotiated agreement between the University and Sound Transit to relocate sensitive research activities well away from construction and rail activities.
Connected to the existing Molecular Engineering and Sciences Building (MoLES), the new five-story Nanoengineering & Science Building (NanoES) is the second phase of a 168,000 square foot complex near the center of UW’s main campus. The ground floor of the building accommodates the vibration-sensitive instrumentation and integrates with the Molecular Analysis Facility in MolES. The first floor provides space for classrooms and other teaching spaces that will complement MolES research activities, providing an increased level of collaboration in research and teaching.
The project was a collaboration with ZGF Architects.
BD+C University Sector Ranking: #3
What makes AEI rank so well? Projects like this: Engineering Education and Research Center – The University of Texas at Austin
Already one of the nation’s top-ranked programs, the University of Texas-Austin Cockrell School of Engineering is building a signature facility devoted to educating future generations of engineers. The Engineering Education and Research Center contains 430,000 square feet of open and flexible space for interactive learning, hands-on student projects, and 21st-century teaching and research labs for creating new technologies and solving real-world problems. The EERC’s North Tower has 50,000 square feet of large-scale, multidisciplinary research labs; the South Tower is home to the Cockrell School’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and houses seven research neighborhoods focused on developing new technologies in computing, power, electronics and wireless networking. The Cockrell School’s Innovation Center will be located inside the EERC, becoming the first space dedicated to entrepreneurship training and commercialization programming. Equipped with the latest Texas Instruments (TI) technologies, the TI teaching and project labs will give electrical and computer engineering undergraduates space to design and build sensors, robots, wearable technologies, and more.
AEI’s mechanical engineering team collaborated closely with the architects to properly cool the large glassed space while maintaining its design integrity. The atrium design includes perforated ventilation panels surrounding the space and 30-inch buried ductwork that supplies air to vents in the free-standing stairwell. Because the atrium connecting the two towers is the building’s signature space, AEI’s Pivotal lighting design group worked closely with the architect to maximize natural light while reducing glare and heat gain. The team designed a stainless-steel canopy with four different perforation densities. Positioned above the building’s seventh level, the canopy will focus daylight in areas of building with the greatest need and create a sense of dappled shade that will change over the course of a day and with the seasons.
The project team was made up of Ennead Architects LLP and Hensel Phelps Construction Co.
Rendering courtesy of ZGF Architects.
BD+C Healthcare Facilities Ranking: #4
What makes AEI rank so well? Projects like this: Center for Health and Healing South – Oregon Health and Science University
Oregon Health and Science University’s needed to build additional ambulatory care space and improve the learning environment for their medical students and researchers. Completed in June, the Center for Health and Healing-South includes a 400,000-square foot, 15-story ambulatory care tower with a central utility plant and a 325,000-square foot, 11-story parking garage, hotel and conference center.
The ambulatory care facility includes a surgery department, 47-hour recovery unit, ancillary services, and specialty clinics. The central utility plant has a 2,500-ton chilled water plant that serves both of the new buildings and an another one nearby. The plant includes 500 tons of heat recovery chiller capacity which, in addition to providing cooling, can provide for base space heating needs and preheat for domestic hot water for both buildings. The balance of heating needs are met by condensing boilers and water heaters. Lower floors of the ambulatory care facility are served by a recirculating variable air volume air handling system and upper floors are served by a dedicated outside air system with chilled beams providing supplemental cooling.
The buildings were designed using LEAN principals. ZGF Architects and Hoffman Construction were part of the project team.
BD+C Federal Government Ranking: #6
What makes AEI rank so well? Projects like this: National Aeronautics and Space Administration – Johnson Space Center Cogeneration Plant
Led by AEI’s Baltimore office, the project includes a new combined heat and power (CHP) yard and a 2,200 square foot addition to a central heating and cooling plant. The addition houses a 500 kW steam turbine generator and electrical switchgear. The yard consists of two nominal 5.4 MW combustion turbines and supplemental fired heat recovery steam generators. The CHP system operates as a baseload system generating up to 10.8 MW of electric power. The steam output is connected to the existing campus steam distribution system, supplementing boiler steam generation on the NASA campus.
In addition to baseload operations, the CHP is designed to operate in island mode. Designed with black start capability, the CHP can direct power to parts of the NASA campus independent of the utility grid.
Hensel Phelps, Energy Systems Group and Chervon were part of the project team.
Aerial views of Johnson Space Center, building 21, building 24N and former 222 area.
Rendering courtesy of ZGF Architects.
BD+C Green Building Sector Ranking: #8
What makes AEI rank so well? Projects like this: California Department of General Services – California Air Resources Board Southern California Consolidation Project
Consolidating five existing locations, the new home of the California Air Resource Board (CARB) will be one of the largest and most advanced vehicle emissions testing and research facilities in the world – as well as the world’s largest zero net energy (ZNE) facility of its type. The nature of CARB’s research mission, regulating as-yet unregulated emissions constituents, demands high-performance precision laboratory environments to produce repeatable data and meet ZNE.
Housing more than 400 employees near the University of California, Riverside campus, the design-build project will provide advanced chemistry laboratories, a range of dedicated vehicle test cells, workspace for accommodating new test methods for future generations of vehicles, space for developing enhanced onboard diagnostics and portable emissions measurement systems, and public areas. Awarded through a design competition, the project team used AEI-developed performance modeling tools for rapid system concept testing, validating a suite of climate-responsive systems strategies improving on the project’s required energy use intensity (EUI) by an additional 20%.
The building’s energy use will be offset by 3.8 MW of photovoltaic (PV) panels on site. 1.5 MWh of battery storage will optimize utility costs under a net-metering agreement. A comprehensive approach to water conservation, collection, and reuse will contribute to a nearly 50% reduction in required potable water use. The new facility and 19-acre CARB campus will be designed and built targeting the highest possible levels of measured sustainability, with the intention to achieve LEED Platinum certification and meet California’s CALGreen Tier 2 threshold for overall sustainability and energy efficiency (248w).
ZGF Architects and Hensel Phelps Construction Co. were part of the project team.