Thornton Tomasetti projects win ACEC NY honors for outstanding projects

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm,has been recognized by the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC-NY) with two 2012 Excellence in Engineering Awards at the Council’s annual gala held on March 24. Thornton Tomasetti’s work on the Pennsylvania State University Millennium Science Complex was presented ACEC-NY’s highest honor, the Diamond Award, while MetLife Stadium received a Platinum Award, the Council’s second highest honor.

Founded in 1921, the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York is the state’s premier organization for consulting engineering firms, representing over 280 companies and 20,000 employees in New York. The organization’s mission is to further the business interests of its members through advocacy, networking, education and business services.

Key Points:

• The American Council of Engineering Companies of New York’s Engineering Excellence Awards are often called the equivalent of the Academy Awards® to the engineering profession. More than 500 engineers and clients celebrated achievements in public infrastructure projects and private-sector works in the areas of buildings, energy, environmental, structural systems, transportation, and water and wastewater engineering.
• ACEC New York’s Diamond Award is presented to 27 outstanding projects throughout the world in various categories. Judging is based on complexity, future value to the engineering profession, original orinnovative application of new or existing technologies, and meeting or exceeding client needs.
• Thornton Tomasetti provided structural design services for a state-of-the-art, four-storyPennsylvania State University Millennium Science Complex consisting of a western Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences wing and a northern Materials Research Institute wing. Located at the heart of Penn State’s University Park campus, the new facility provides a central location for faculty and students involved in materials research to collaborate across departmental boundaries.
• The footprint of each wing of the L-shaped structure is approximately 550 feet long by 110 feet wide and the roof steps back 110 feet at every level creating five green roof terraces to meet LEED certification.
• Home of the New York Giants and the New York Jets, the new 2.2-million-square-foot MetLife Stadium is the second largest NFL stadium in the country, with seating for 82,500 fans, including 217 luxury suites.
• Thornton Tomasetti created a building information model structural steel design and other skeletal features for MetLife Stadium that expedited the steel procurement and detailing, cutting the construction schedule by several months. The building information model was also used for coordination between precast stadium construction, steel construction, as well as MEP systems, virtually eliminating field issues caused by interferences of components generally encountered during construction.
• The environmentally conscious project uses recycled steel and concrete from the demolition of the old stadium. The project diverted 7,000 tons of debris from landfills and managed to use recycled materials in steel piles and aluminum louvers.

“The wonderfulprojects that have earned awards represent successes, each in their own way. The honorees are not the only winners – society is as well. The award-winning works connectcommunities, ensure safe and reliable energy and water, and make our buildings safe, efficient and comfortable. To be able to end a work day knowing you’ve made a valuable contribution to society through the built environment is a privilege and a source of pride for the professional engineers of our member firms. Our quality of life and economic future depend on the quality of our infrastructure and the buildings where we live, work and play, and they wouldn’t exist were it not for engineers and their colleagues,” said Neil Lucey, chairman of ACEC New York.