Left to right: John & Catherine Gander and Charlotte & Larry Whaley

Haynes Whaley Associates and Affiliated Engineers, Inc. (AEI) participated as Gold Sponsors for the fifth annual Night at Nemours gala to benefit Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children.  Proceeds from this year’s event will support specialized care for children with traumatic injury, ensuring that the hospital’s trauma team has the resources it needs.  Gala proceeds will also help to continue safety education and injury prevention programs for parents and children.  Larry and Charlotte Whaley and Catherine and I were pleased to be part of this outstanding event.  In addition, our Reston and Houston offices are proud to be partnering with Nemours (www.nemours.org), FKP Architects (www.fkp.com), and AEI (www.aei.com) on the Nemours/Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children – Delaware Expansion.

© Maxwell MacKenzie 2009

Patriots Plaza II and III, located in the heart of Southwest Washington, DC, have been awarded LEED Core & Shell Gold Certification, making them part of the largest speculative office project in the District to receive a LEED Gold rating. Haynes Whaley’s engineers collaborated with the project team, including Trammell Crow Company, Gensler, B&A Consulting Engineers, and Helix Constructors, to design a facility that meets new government security standards, is marketable to private sector tenants, minimizes the impact to the environment and is energy efficient. Patriots Plaza II and III perform 14% better than ASHRAE 9.1, utilized over 20% of recyclable and regional building materials, and recycled more than 80% of the construction waste.

Patriots Plaza is a three-phase, 1 million sf office complex that is more than 80% leased by the General Services Administration for multiple U.S. Government agencies, including the FBI, FEMA, Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Our engineers provided structural design services for the entire complex, which was the first market-driven urban complex designed to meet post 9/11 security standards for a Level IV facility. Patriots Plaza’s high security features include progressive collapse avoidance, a hardened structure to resist blast loading, special column designs in the below-grade parking garage, and intricate detailing of reinforcement to increase the ability of the structure to confine damage and withstand attack.

One major supplier of these buildings, Cover-All Building Systems, recently reached out to their customers with a warning regarding the structural integrity of some of their buildings related to combined wind and snow loadings. 

http://www.coverallfacts.net/

Haynes Whaley has recently been involved evaluating some of these very specialized buildings.  Based on our experience with this type of building, we recommend that owners hire a structural engineer to properly evaluate their existing buildings.

Fannie Mae Technology Center

Fannie Mae’s Technology Center in Urbana, MD is celebrating its 5th anniversary and the $1.7 million in energy savings it has realized as the first LEED certified data center in the nation – as reported in a recent Fannie Mae News Release. Haynes Whaley prides itself with being the structural engineer of record on this premier facility. Our staff worked at an accelerated pace with other project team members, including Gensler, EYP Mission Critical Facilities, Mark G. Anderson Consultants and Holder Construction Company, to design the 247,000 sf data center and office facility to LEED standards. With no guidance from previous LEED data center projects, the design team faced a multitude of challenges, but close collaboration and an innovative spirit resulted in success. In addition to incorporating energy-saving features into the design, regional materials were utilized, and 80% of the construction waste was recycled during construction. All of these factors contributed to a more environmentally responsible structure and to the facility’s LEED certification. Since the completion of the Fannie Mae Technology Center, Haynes Whaley has continued to be committed to sustainability with LEED Accredited Professionals on our staff. Many of our projects are working toward or have earned Silver, Gold or Platinum LEED certification.

On Saturday, June 6th, Haynes Whaley participated in AIA Houston’s 23rd Annual Sandcastle Competition, coming home with a win in the “Best Traditional” category. However, the highlight of the day was the team’s “green” water pump design that successfully brought water (a critical ingredient in sandcastle building) from the Gulf of Mexico to their build site.

Haynes Whaley’s latest Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory project was recently featured in the Spring 2009 edition of Gilbane Construction’s “Bulletin”.  Our firm provided the structural engineering services for the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) at Fort Detrick, Maryland.  This recently completed project was the first new facility built for the Department of Homeland Security.  Along with Gilbane Construction, we worked with Perkins + Will (Atlanta and Houston), Affiliated Engineers, Inc., ccrd partners, and other national firms on this critical project.  The mission of this facility is to serve as the lead lab with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in the event of a bioterrorist attack on this country.

This was Haynes Whaley’s third BSL-4 project.  Our previous experience with the unique construction requirements for high-containment lab areas was a great benefit to this effort.  As an example, we were able to reduce the concrete curing requirements for the concrete containment walls based upon our experience with the two previous projects.  NBACC presented many other unique structural design challenges, including the ability to resist progressive collapse and the use of a micropile foundation system.

Texas Construction’s annual “Top 40 Projects” was recently published in their June 2009 edition.  Haynes Whaley Associates had six projects in this year’s listing:

     #8   Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus

   #15   Texas A&M University Health Science Center

              Campus Phase 1

   #26   The Legacy at Memorial

   #31   IAH Terminal C Ticketing, Baggage Claim and

              ITT Level Remodel

   #33   Texas A&M University Health Science Center

              at Round Rock

   #39   Three Eldridge Place

This follows last year’s 2007 “Top 40 Projects” which also included 6 projects by our firm.

The Menil Collection proved to be an important architectural and structural achievement, and showed the way that a new generation of modernist buildings could be more compatible with their surroundings.