Gresham SmithClient: Tennessee Department of Transportation
As the new main western gateway into Nashville, the Broadway Viaduct Bridge spans five active CSX railroad lines, 11th Avenue South, and two greenways. It serves as a crucial arterial for the city, carrying not only 26,000 vehicles daily but also critical telecommunications for the downtown area. To minimize impacts of construction to the traveling public, the team used accelerated bridge construction techniques that resulted in the complete replacement of the bridge superstructure during a mere eight-week full closure of the bridge. An integral part of the construction was the use of shallow 32-inch web depth steel girders featuring highperformance Grade 70 steel flanges, spanning all five CSX railroad tracks. Steel beams not only improved vertical clearance over the tracks but also provided span lengths with sufficient railroad horizontal clearance that eliminated the need for bent protection.
HNTB CorporationClient: Greater Orlando Aviation Authority
Facing demand projected to increase by 12 million passengers annually, Orlando International Airport needed to expand. The new Terminal C introduces multiple industry firsts that increase safety, efficiency, and mobility, including a terminal-wide, 100 percent trackable RFID baggage handling system. Stunning architectural elements and artistic interpretations create a sense of place and invite passengers to experience Florida’s famous natural elements of water, garden, and light. Terminal C elevates the value of engineering by demonstrating how a well-designed project can not only advance the owner’s objectives but the aviation industry’s objectives as well. Terminal C features special systems design engineering for stateof-the-art connectivity, including virtual ramp control systems, 100 percent automated screening lanes at TSA checkpoints, and visual docking guidance systems that allow pilots to park aircraft themselves.
Jaros, Baum & BollesClient: Hines
Completed as New York City’s first entirely fossil-fuel-free commercial office building, 555 Greenwich employs a revolutionary infrastructure that breaks new ground for sustainable design. The project team had to overcome both the challenge of designing thoroughly sustainable systems for a first-of-its-kind building—and then coordinating those systems with those of 345 Hudson, the existing building to which the first-of-its-kind was being attached. The solution was an ingenious and intricate weave of innovative systems—dedicated outside air units, geothermal heating and cooling, industrial scale air-source heat pumps, radiant heating and cooling, and increased air filtration—innovations previously unheard of in a commercial office building in New York City. The two buildings are now interconnected with a thermal network designed to shift heating and cooling energy between the structures, thus maximizing the HVAC system efficiency of each.
Kimley-Horn and AssociatesClient: Los Angeles World Airports
The new Midfield Satellite Concourse North “West Gates at Tom Bradley International Terminal” is part of a major terminal expansion program at Los Angeles International Airport. The new facility accommodates both domestic and international flights and enables flexibility in scheduling at other LAX facilities. The project combines cutting-edge technology, engineering ingenuity, and practical sustainability to deliver a $1.73 billion program that touched every aspect of engineering. The West Gates project features use of lightweight cellular concrete, sustainable and recycled concrete material, and a Siphon Pump System. The project also integrates sustainability through the low impact development principles utilized in stormwater management measures. It ultimately earned Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.
Nitsch EngineeringClient: Boston University
The Boston University Center for Computing & Data Sciences (CCDS) exemplifies cuttingedge sustainable engineering and design. The project team provided innovative civil engineering, permitting, and land surveying services to convert a former parking lot into Boston’s greenest building—a LEED Platinum building that will reach carbon neutrality by 2040. The project overcame significant site constraints on the two-acre urban area to design an innovative stormwater management system, which also required coordination with 31 geothermal wells, associated piping, and sewer infrastructure for the new building. The iconic offset façade allows more space for green roofs, which reduces the carbon footprint. An integrated rainwater harvesting system irrigates the roofs, and the CCDS meets sustainability goals through renewable energy. The CCDS provides a high-profile model for future successful sustainable engineering and design.
Magnusson Klemencic AssociatesClient: Davis Brody Bond (DBB)+REX/Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC)
Simple and elegant during daylight, a warm illuminating lantern at night, the new Perelman Performing Arts Center is the newest jewel and culminating piece of the 9/11 memorial site. It’s a deceptively simple cube that belies an internal one-of-a-kind, immensely complex structural system that performs engineering “gymnastics.” Its three principal theaters “float” inside the exterior like three ships in a bottle or three boxes inside their marble cube. These floating boxes are structurally independent and acoustically isolated from each other, the building itself, and the infrastructure below. The structure’s three main theaters and two adjoining storage areas, or “scene docks,” can be reconfigured, coupled, and de-coupled (transformed) into an unheard-of 11 different theater volumes and over 60 different configurations. Balconies roll in and out, seating platforms rise and drop to create raked or flat seating surfaces—all seamlessly transforming three performance spaces into many configurations ranging from intimate 100-person black-box venues to epic 1,000-person concerts.
STVClient: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
The new Terminal A at Newark Liberty International Airport replaces the existing facility with a new 1-million-square-foot, 33-gate domestic terminal. Opened in January 2023, Terminal A was the largest design-build infrastructure program in New Jersey state history. The $2.7 billion Terminal A Redevelopment Program includes eight new bridges and roadways, a new car rental and parking facility, and 1.4 acres of airfield paving improvements. As one of the region’s three major airport gateways, Newark’s new terminal is emblematic of an airport renaissance for New Jersey and the New York Metropolitan region.
RS&H & AtkinsRéalisClient: Colorado Department of Transportation
This new 10-mile, $1.2 billion massive highway project totally enhances traffic flow west of downtown Denver, while improving capacity and reliability and reducing congestion. The project removed a failing 57-year-old viaduct before lowering a portion of the reconstructed interstate and covering it with a four-acre park to reconnect the long-divided Swansea and Elyria neighborhoods. Features include the reconstruction of 10 miles of I-70, demolition of 16 bridges with major structural deficiencies, and construction of 24 new concrete and steel bridges, two of which are rail bridges. It is projected to result in $18 billion in increased regional economic activity by 2040.