NYACE honors engineering excellence

Real Estate Weekly, May 5, 1993

The New York Association of Consulting Engineers (NYACE) presented 22 awards for engineering excellence this evening in five categories of service. The categories are: Environmental engineering, structural design for buildings, special applications of structural design, mechanical engineering, and transportation and bridges.

The awards included six First Prizes for distinguished engineering accomplishments. Camp Dresser & McKee received a First Prize award for the Mamaroneck, New York, Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrading, a project which involved expanding an 18 million gallon-per-day primary facility to a 40 mgd secondary facility on a site with limited area and critical aesthetic considerations.

A First Prize was also presented to The Office of Irwin G. Cantor, P.C., for structural design of the John D. Jr. and David Rockefeller Research Building at the Rockefeller University, New York. The new laboratory building, which bridges the FDR Drive, had to be constructed with minimal limited traffic disturbance and designed so that vibration would not affect sensitive equipment.

Two engineering firms received First Prize awards for Mount Sinai Medical Center's new Guggenheim Pavilion. An award for structural design was given to Weiskopf & Pickworth, and an award for mechanical design was presented to Syska & Hennessy, Inc. The new Pavilion replaced 11 old structures on the site in a two-phase program. The architectural concept was to provide an environment that emphasizes well being, and among its major features are atriums and the separation of medical functions from patient areas. Both the structural and the mechanical systems incorporate complex, state-of-the-art technology.

Weidlinger Associates was presented with a First Prize award for the Georgia Dome, the world's largest covered oval stadium and the home of the Atlanta Falcons. The dome can accommodate 20,000 to 80,000 people in a variety of configurations and incorporates a structural system composed of fabric and cables with undulating lines spiraling toward a central spine.

A First Prize award also went to Bettigole Andrews & Clark for design of the reconstruction of the University Heights Bridge over the Harlem River in New York City. Originally constructed in 1895, the bridge was a designated historic landmark and required a combination of replication, preservation and reuse in order to achieve a wider, stronger but historically correct structure.

Two Second Prize awards were presented in the environmental engineering category. Hazen and Sawyer were cited for the fast-track Sludge Dewatering Facilities designed as part of New York City's Sludge Management Program, and Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., received an award for the new Westchester County Materials Recovery Facility which was designed to handle recyclables.

Two Second Prizes were also presented in the category of structural design for buildings. Ewell W. Finley, P.C., was cited for the Riker's Island Communicable Disease Unit, Phase 1, a project completed in 90 days from design to construction completion. The Office of Irwin G. Cantor, P.C., received an award for 450 Lexington Avenue, a one million square foot building constructed over a turn-of-the-century skyscraper and the commuter rail tracks of Metro North.

Ove Arup & Partners was presented with a Second Prize award for design of the ticket counter canopy in the new US Air Terminal at LaGuardia Airport, a project which borrows technology from the aerospace industry.

In the transportation and bridges category, Second Prize awards were given to Hardesty & Hanover for the Route 19/Interstate 80 Interchange at Paterson, New Jersey, which replaces a 20-year old connection long plagued by congestion and to Frederic R. Harris, Inc., for the 140-mile long Metrolink Commuter Rail System linking downtown Los Angeles and outlying residential communities.

Third Prize awards were given to: Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., for an asbestos abatement, hazardous waste removal and demolition project at a General Mail Processing Facility in Westchester County; to Thornton Tomasetti Engineers for structural design of Chifley Tower, a high-rise office building designed for financial trading firms in Sydney, Australia; and to Robert Silman Associates, P.C., for their research into non-destructive methods for investigating historic buildings, using the New York State Capitol in Albany as the subject.

Also, to STV/Seelye Stevenson Value & Knecht for mechanical design of the David Axelrod Institute for Public Health, Albany, New York; to Bettigole Andrews & Clark, Inc., for rehabilitation of the historic Valhalla Bridge on the Bronx River Parkway, over the Metro North tracks; and to Sverdrup Corporation for the Penn Station Central Control Facility, New York.

Honorable Mention awards were presented to Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., for the Nassau County Firemen's Training Center RI/FS; to Severud Associates for Liberty Science Center; and to Meyer, Strong & Jones for an Ice Storage Study for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., Hauppauge, New York.