Thornton Tomasetti project to receive Built by Women DC Award

New York — Thornton Tomasetti announced that one of its projects, the National Science Foundation Headquarters at 2461 Eisenhower Ave. in Alexandria, Va., was selected to receive a Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) Built by Women District of Columbia (BxW DC) Award. Additionally, Peggy Van Eepoel, P.E., an associate principal in the firm’s Weidlinger Protective Design practice, will be recognized for her leadership on the project at the BWAF awards gala in Washington, D.C., on March 18.

BxW DC honors outstanding structures that have been completed or broken ground in the Washington, D.C. region, as well as the women responsible for leading the design and/or construction of the project. Winning projects will also be featured in an exhibit at the National Building Museum that highlights women’s contributions to the city’s built environment.

Van Eepoel has more than 15 years of experience in protective design services and blast engineering for embassies, court houses, military housing and administrative buildings, laboratories, hospitals and museums. She established and currently oversees the Weidlinger Protective Design practice in Thornton Tomasetti’s Washington, D.C. office.

A strong team of women in the architectural, development and construction fields worked with Van Eepoel on the project, leading their respective disciplines. The group included Mignon Anthony formerly of the National Science Foundation, Tomara Moses formerly of Lowe Enterprises, and Sarah Brand of Balfour Beatty.

Thornton Tomasetti performed blast engineering services for the 690,000-square-foot, mixed-use property that is part of the Hoffman Town Center, a 56-acre urban campus. It consists of two office towers with an interconnected common atrium, 30,000 square feet of street-level retail, and three levels of below-grade parking for 380 vehicles. The project is scheduled for completion later this year.

Van Eepoel has served on the board of Structural Engineers Association of Metropolitan Washington and the ASCE Blast, Shock and Impact Committee. She was selected for participation in the National Academy of Engineering – U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in 2015 and was recently chosen as one of Engineering News-Record’s 2016 “20 under 40” for the Mid-Atlantic region.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY, and a master’s degree in structural engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.