Annual Review 2020-2021: Resilience by Thornton Tomasetti

Annual Review 2020/2021

resilience

resilience M

ore than a year of masks. Social distancing. Massive economic disruption. The COVID-19 pandemic made us all flex new muscles to create a new kind of life and work. With vaccines rolling out, what have we learned? How can we better weather the next crisis? How can we build a more secure, just and resilient world? Message from the Chairman & Co-CEOs 2 Resilience 4 Integrating Our Reports 6 A New

for Buildings 8

Harnessing Data to Build Resilience 12 Building Great Workplaces 16 Our Good Work 22 Helping Our Communities 28 Built-in Resilience 30 Resilience & the Edge Effect 34 2021 Ingenuity Awards 36 Purpose & Values Awards 38

Bess Adler/Thornton Tomasetti

TTWiiN Innovation Accelerator 40

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN AND CO-CEOS

Leading with Resilience

Executive Chairman Tom Scarangello (center) with Co-CEOs Mike Squarzini (left) and Pete DiMaggio.

hen COVID-19 first began to spread like wildfire, no one knew how long it would rage, or whether or when it would burn itself out. Not since the flu pandemic of 1918 had a global health crisis touched so many – or so tested our resilience. We began addressing the challenges of this new environment from the earliest days of the pandemic. We raced to make information technology upgrades that would enable our people to work seamlessly from any location (p. 17). We rethought the fundamentals of safe and effective team collaboration, whether on Zoom, in the office or side by side with clients in the field. And we set board committees and task forces to work preparing for the future, adjusting our five-year plan, and reimagining operations and expectations for a post-pandemic world. Through it all, we continued to innovate: we rolled out GoGuide™ to enhance safety and help reopen the places where people gather (p. 13). We built Healthy Reentry, a health-monitoring and contact-tracing app, and made it freely available (p. 24). And we are using computational fluid dynamics modeling to simulate airflow patterns and help make indoor environments safer to reoccupy (p. 31). By pushing us apart, the pandemic also pulled our industry closer together. New collaborations emerged. Clients, colleagues and competitors – we all came together to help the communities that were in need of our combined abilities and expertise.

This demanding year drove us to look afresh at our purpose – we embrace challenges to make lasting contributions – to reexamine our firm and redouble our commitment to working toward a healthy, sustainable and equitable industry. The challenges of these times also sharpened our focus on the resilience work we do for our clients, our communities and our collective future. Resilience, we believe, grows out of many kinds of innovation – in technology, in process and in sustaining relationships. And we see barriers to innovation coming down, such as those between disciplines, companies, and the private and public sectors. With the pandemic as a catalyst, our industry is stepping out of its comfort zone and embracing new opportunities. Promising and exciting work is already underway. Together, we can accelerate the drive toward a more resilient world.

Tom Scarangello Executive Chairman

Pete DiMaggio Co-CEO

Mike Squarzini Co-CEO

resilience 4

entral to the many definitions of resilience is the ability to anticipate, adapt to, endure and recover from shocks and stresses. 2020 tested the resilience of countries, communities, organizations, families and individuals. In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us, but there’s light at the end of that long tunnel. We can foresee a not-too-distant time when we can again gather with family and friends, and with colleagues and clients. With this hopeful prospect before us, we looked at what we’ve learned from the pandemic and how we can adapt to other stressors, such as climate change. Explore in these pages some of the ways we responded to the pandemic – and how we’re addressing the long-term need for greater resilience.

inge nuit y

The Annual Review: Integrating Our Reports PRO JEC

Life

T ST

UD Y

The 30 Observ Hud son ation D Yard ec s Sta k at nds Out

the

Edg e

t 10 Yard 1 flo s real is the ta ors an -est d 1, lle

ate st bu 270 1,13 deve ild 1 fe 100t feet up lopmen ing in th et, 30 H , h e obse floor, th protrudi t in U.S. larges udson t pr ng sh rv hi e It ca ation de Edge arpl story. An ivate is nt y to its ilevers ck in th the high from th d at e wes 80 fe e est op visito tip. A gl et te rs en ass flo from th rn hem en-air joy vi isph or in em ai er ews the The deck n struct e. stra un ight ur ’s ce spec ique tr dow nter e ia tacu n. lets But lar fe ngular th terr at of of th is aweengi ace re g in e bu pres ildin spiring neering ents n iz in s in g deck g pl inge a an “Ear cog nu was . re s ly n’t al ity. t re Man in the way add tower bou s pa ager t in . rt they ’s Jeff is a n e a c y Callo design wan il it ted near ,” sa ic ip e fa an ic w, “the id Pr the n s ib sw deve p a rt onic top ojec – so spo sue jo r met place-m loper de t (con hing tinue te re e a m a cide ia l is d in that arking d o ra side) fe soc b was rp t n o s one ature a e C of a ec ig g kind .” eb at w

th f th eo som

Ann

ua 2 0 1 l Re p o rt 9/ 2 020

+ 9 2 0 1or ate

p C or on si b p R es or t R ep

il it

he lessons of 2020 were many. One was an increased awareness of how necessary collaboration and integrated efforts are for success. We’re better and stronger when we act together.

In years past, our annual report and our corporate responsibility report have been separate publications. But why? The intent of our annual reports has been to fuel conversations about ideas and trends in the AEC industry and beyond, often through the lens of our work. One theme emerged again and again: how a passion for embracing challenges and making lasting contributions informs who we are, what we do and why. The corporate responsibility report has outlined the progress we’ve made on our commitment to do business in a way that supports people, planet and profits. It was a parallel expression of the who, why and what. So this year, we integrated the two into a new publication: the annual review. Past corporate responsibility reports have focused on five areas (facing page). All that data won’t fit easily within these pages. Instead, we’re giving an overview of developments and sharing more information – and all the numbers – online. Find it at ThorntonTomasetti.com/Corporate-Responsibility-Report. 6

Continuous Improvement

Our short, medium and long-term goals and progress toward targets (p. 14)

Sustainable Operations Our carbon footprint, and actions we’ve taken to reduce it, and the environmental impact of our office operations (p. 15)

Building Great Workplaces Equity, diversity and inclusion, career development and learning opportunities, and advances toward a lifestyle-friendly workplace (p. 16)

Our Good Work

Projects and technology that promote sustainability, resilience and social equity (p. 22)

Helping Our Communities Community service, corporate charitable giving and Thornton Tomasetti Foundation activities and accomplishments (p. 28)

A challenging year sharpened our focus on resilience – for people, the planet and the built environment.

resilience 7

A New for Buildings How do we give buildings a healthy dose of resilience? We asked a group of specialists to share their thoughts.

Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health identified nine foundations for a healthy building.* How does this change the way we design or engineer them? Rachel: There’s a lot of overlap between the nine foundations and the 10 concepts of WELL.** The best results happen when the needs of those using the space inform an integrated process that includes decisions about air and water quality, as well as operational protocols around facility maintenance. It should also encompass things like HR policies, healthcare benefits and ergonomic amenities. Arathi: The nine foundations have drawn attention to healthy buildings, but they’re not really new. We’ve been advocating for access to light, air, nature and recreation for a long time; this dates to design principles seen in ancient Rome or the Indus Valley. What’s new is, we can now connect data-driven design choices to the building narrative – meaning what makes it a compelling place where you want to be or that you want to invest in. What’s the top priority in the COVID era? Ron: Employee safety is first and foremost. Following that, it’s business continuity: no one wants the disruption of having to send employees home for a 14-day quarantine because of potential exposure at the workplace. Keeping these priorities in mind, and considering that as much as 60 percent of COVID-19 spread is from presymptomatic or asymptomatic individuals, it’s necessary to quickly adapt existing workplaces. The most pressing changes are physical adaptations enabling employees to maintain social distancing, and occupancy limitations on conference rooms and other enclosed spaces. Ready availability of hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies is also vital. Employees need to feel safe in the environment, so signage, visibility of cleaning and disinfection, especially in high-touch areas, and temperature scanners are important.

* 9foundations.forhealth.org ** v2.wellcertified.com/v/en/overview

Scott E. Frank, P.E., LEED AP Managing Partner Jaros, Baum & Bolles

Arathi Gowda, AIA, AICP, LEED AP BD+C Associate Director and Team Leader, High-Performance Design Group Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Finally, the creature comforts of the workplace need to be considered, so we need to adopt safe cafeteria spaces, with COVID-safe coffee-machine, microwave and refrigerator protocols. Flexibility within enclosed spaces is critical to allow for reconfiguration of workspaces, installation of physical barriers and repurposing of conference rooms and common areas. During the pandemic, we experienced an abrupt increase in people working from home. Should many of those arrangements become permanent, we anticipate increased “hoteling” or collaborative spaces for employees who return to the office intermittently. Health, in a building, isn’t something you can see or smell. How will we know when our buildings provide for optimal health? Scott: For each of the nine foundations, we can measure performance outcomes that directly correlate with human health outcomes. In this sense, we can know our buildings are optimal for health from an operational and design standpoint. Rachel: The pandemic accelerated innovation, particularly among buildingsystem manufacturers. For the first time, they’re layering airflow. Volume exchange rate and filtration capacity are being layered onto environmental-health data collected by sensors on-site. Many of the platforms we’ve

Ronald B. Menzin, M.D. Market Medical Director – Tristate Cigna Corporation

Rachel Hodgdon President and CEO International WELL Building Institute

seen are open-source, so I think this approach will be embraced quickly by the broader engineering community.

of those trends, like fitness centers and rock-climbing walls, anywhere in the world – not just in Berkeley, California.

We’re moving from taking the pulse of a building every few months or years to real-time reporting. The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the pace of innovation in advanced health-impact metrics. Fifteen years ago, you might have gone three months – or even three years – without understanding your energy footprint. Now, most owners don’t even go three minutes, thanks to advances in technology. We should be measuring environmental-health metrics with the same kind of regularity.

Ron: It will depend on when we’re able to track whether infections could reasonably be presumed to have originated in the workplace. But the perception of health and safety is also important. Right now, 82 percent of employees have concerns about returning to their workplaces.

Arathi: Discussion of air exchange rates or filtration used to be confined to MEP meetings. Now it comes up in broader updates, and nearly everyone is a stakeholder. There’s a lot of interest in making buildings more permeable, and conversations around dechemicalization of materials to limit volatile organic compounds. Amenitization of space related to health is in high demand: is there a space for a fitness center, meditation, maternal health, a women’s room, a bike room? These conversations are moving beyond “a mothers’ room is a code requirement.” It’s not yet a scientific metric, but I think it will soon become a commercial metric. And we’re starting to see some

COVID-19 has taken an enormous toll on our way of life, and people are feeling the effects – both physical and mental – of facing the unknown every day. We know that stress negatively impacts physical health, so assessing the level of stress at the workplace and implementing solutions becomes more important than ever. Our return-to-work solutions help employers create a safer, healthier work site. Structured, enforced safety protocols help reduce stress while improving whole-person health. In the infectious-disease arena, what changes in MEP design or operation contribute most to making a building healthier? Scott: Providing adequate ventilation at all times. In practice, design, maintenance and operations issues often conspire to preclude the introduction of adequate outside air into occupied spaces. The quantity of ventilation air also needs to increase. Current standards aren’t adequate for optimizing 9

Physical Safety Lessons of 9/11

DESIGNING RESILIENT, HEALTHY BUILDINGS

human health. Also critical is appropriate filtration: minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) 13 should be the base level of filtration for any HVAC system serving occupied spaces, with best-inclass being MERV 16 (facing page). Humidification during cold seasons should be implemented consistently. Research suggests that specific humidity ranges inhibit many biological agents.

Managing Director Gary Panariello, with walkie-talkie, at ground zero.

eptember 2021 will mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which, like the COVID-19 pandemic, caused a rethinking of how buildings are designed and used. The attack on the World Trade Center spurred debate about the future of tall buildings. Some thought people wouldn’t want to live or work in skyscrapers ever again. Yet, since 2001, more than 25 buildings taller than the 417-meter-tall Twin Towers have been completed worldwide, and 16 more are under construction, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. What effect did 9/11 have on tall building design? While steel and concrete structures can be engineered to equivalent levels of safety, the attack focused new attention on long-standing considerations of redundant load paths and the prevention of progressive collapse. Changes to building codes and “standard of care” practices led to improved emergency egress design, steel fireproofing and backup water sources for sprinkler systems. Many codes now require computerized fire safety devices, smoke detectors, strobe lights and other safety features not available 20 years ago. Interest continues to expand in engineering structures and façades against blast while preserving function and architectural vision. And emerging technologies, such as the dynamic escape and evacuation modeling we’re developing that predicts the way people respond to emergencies, are being introduced to support the design of structures that allow for faster and safer egress.

Real-time indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring and reporting can verify adequate performance and enable a fast response to any problem. So far, IAQ measurement has been an “inside-baseball” metric, available only to HVAC and buildingmanagement personnel. But COVID-19 is provoking a move to make IAQ a consumer-ready metric. Owners and tenants increasingly understand that users will insist on having access to data about the spaces in which they live and work. They also appreciate that sensors will soon be available on smartphones and wearable devices, and that they should get ahead of the issue to ensure they are providing high-quality indoor air. We’ve known for decades how to make building interiors safer and healthier. Is anything from the COVID-19 experience especially new or promising? Scott: In addition to the big three – adequate ventilation, humidification and IAQ monitoring – we have learned that technologies like bipolar ionization and ultraviolet light are effective at mitigating airborne biological agents. UV light has a record of success in healthcare settings. Far-UV light (~222 nanometer wavelength) seems very promising, as it appears effective at mitigating biological agents without harming people. We need more research on the correlation between biological particle concentrations and infection rates. We can engineer reductions in airborne particle concentrations, but we don’t yet know what levels yield benefits in reducing infections. No one yet knows how many particles are too many or how many will cause infection.

Courtesy www.eComfort.com

One silver lining of the pandemic is the shift in corporate mindset. Businesses are beginning to understand their role in caring for the whole person, because they now understand the business consequences when they don’t. Before the pandemic, many were skeptical about the ROI for healthy buildings. COVID-19 has made it clear that employee resilience and business resilience are directly related. Companies now see health as material to their businesses and have embraced the notion that the spaces where we work have an impact on our well-being. Has designing for building health become a necessity rather than a nice-to-have or marketing feature? Ron: Improvements to the work environment can have a significant impact on productivity and healthcare costs. Despite the United States having high levels of employee stress, there’s hope. Office design can make employees up to 33 percent happier at work, and happy employees are 31 percent more productive. Implementing environmental enhancements, like walking paths or healthy vending machine options, can boost employee morale and productivity, and improve workforce health. How is the pandemic changing the way architects, engineers and owners think about their work?

It has to involve everyone respecting new rules and practices. For many designers and engineers, it’s daunting to think about incorporating something that has traditionally been outside their scope: how the organization they’re designing for governs itself. A true culture of health comes from bridging the capabilities of the organization and the building. The workplace interventions that designers contribute fall apart in the last mile unless the organization undergoes a culture shift. People may not be using their ergonomic chairs properly. They may not tend the

plants or even understand why plants matter. They may not make healthier food choices or get the exercise they need. I see architecture and engineering practices rising to the challenge. It doesn’t mean you’re driving all those decisions. It means you’re revisiting the integrated process and who needs to be at the table to make it work. For the full discussion, visit TTAnnualReview.com/HealthyBuildings.

Rachel: The single biggest change is the recognition that design alone cannot solve the COVID-19 problem – or COVID-23 or whatever comes next. We’ve known for a long time that a green building is only as sustainable as the people operating inside it make it. We know we can’t design our way out of COVID-19.

Harnessing Data to Build Resilience Staying Ahead of Embodied Carbon

racking, measuring and reducing embodied carbon (EC) have become opportunities for companies looking to limit their environmental impacts. Beacon, our free Revit plug-in, is already revolutionizing the way engineers track and manage EC in structural projects. But as buildings, materials and methods evolve, we’re inventing new tools to help us stay ahead of the game. Mass Timber Lower costs. Reduced carbon emissions. Superior insulation. These properties have made mass timber a rising star in the construction industry. Our CORE studio has introduced five new tools that address EC in the design of timber structures and components and is offering them through our Swarm/ShapeDiver online marketplace (p. 41). And since we’re now building EC calculation into every Swarm/ShapeDiver plug-in we release, we expect to offer many more in 2021 and 2022. Early-Stage Carbon Calculator Until recently, engineers relied on Revit plug-ins to measure EC in structures. The problem? Revit needs a relatively complete model, and by then, it’s often too late to make significant changes to limit EC. Kenneth Allan, an engineer in our London office, is developing an easy-to-use tool that measures EC at the concept stage. It uses a wire-frame representation of a building and its materials, based on simple inputs in Excel or Grasshopper, to compare alternative building schemes and display the effects of material substitutions.

A custom application created by CORE studio estimates total embodied carbon in a timber structure, based on user inputs.

What the Heck Is a Digital Twin?

he concept of “digital twins” isn’t new – John Vickers of NASA coined the phrase in 2010. But with the advent of 5G, mature BIM adoption, the Internet of Things (IoT) and advances in real-time data collection, its practical potential has grown. Is a digital twin just a virtual copy of a building? No. It’s a data engine, with input from cameras and IoT-connected sensors continuously streaming between the building and its computer model. Monitoring this information can reduce operating costs, enhance occupant

comfort, alert owners to structural issues and assist in assessments and maintenance. Models – created in design applications like Rhino and Revit, or through laser scanning technologies – provide source data for digital twins. But unlike a static BIM, a digital twin is a “living model” that is continuously updated throughout its life cycle. There’s not yet a standard digital-twin platform for buildings. But Chief Technology Officer Robert Otani is

GoGuide: Crowd Intelligence & Safe Reentry

GoGuide uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and sophisticated software to track the locations of individuals and groups. It processes this information to provide venues with the data needed to safeguard customers, enforce COVID-19 prevention protocols like mask-wearing and social distancing, and meet duty-of-care requirements. The fully customizable solution has a wealth of crowd-tracking and data-gathering, or “crowd intelligence,” capabilities. Anonymous contact tracing, text alerts, occupancy counting, crowd massing, social-distance monitoring, heat mapping and wayfinding can be added or omitted depending on each

Courtesy PMY Group

arly in the pandemic, Bill Edwards, associate principal of security design and consulting, experienced an epiphany: “I was attending a video conference about the community response to this crisis,” he says, “when it dawned on me that there was no technical solution to complement COVID-19 safety measures. I thought about asset tracking – getting people into lines virtually, in family or friend groups, to keep them safe.” Bill told a colleague at Intel about his idea, and together with PMY Group, they developed GoGuideTM.

venue’s requirements. Its dashboards display data in near-real time, keeping administrators continually informed and ready to respond if an emergency arises. GoGuide provides the data – and confidence – needed for people to safely attend large-scale events and return to workplaces. After the pandemic, GoGuide will continue to be an effective crowd-intelligence solution, monitoring pedestrian dynamics and helping venue operators make informed decisions about ad and sign placement, venue layout, programming and crowd flow.

GoGuide displays crowd distribution and activity data for a train platform in Australia on one easy-to-monitor smart dashboard.

grooming Konstru (p. 41), a softwareagnostic data-management platform developed by our CORE studio and TTWiiN, for the job. Konstru can merge multiple analyses, BIMs and 3D designs from different applications into a central model – the digital twin – that can receive data and remain perpetually up to date.

A digital twin in Konstru.

HARNESSING DATA TO BUILD RESILIENCE

Measuring Progress Toward Corporate Responsibility Goals

1 Demonstrate environmental & social impact across all practices

3 Achieve carbon-neutral business operations by 2030

57K metric tons CO2e prevented through sustainable design since 2015

• Target: A carbon footprint below 3.9 MT CO2 e per person in 2021 • Target: 50% reduction in per capita footprint from 2018 levels

• Target: Limit total annual emissions to less than 20% above 2018 levels

4 Support a lifestylefriendly & healthy workplace

• Target: Reduce what we can, offset the rest in 2030

87% of

employees say firm is a great place to work 14

2 Lead the industry in embodiedcarbon reduction 39%

less embodied carbon in assessed projects since 2018

60%

decrease in per capita carbon footprint from 2012 to 2020

92% of employees report positive impacts from ED&I program (p. 18)

5 Promote an inclusive & diverse community

ust as data informs our designs, it also powers continuous improvement in our corporate responsibility efforts. Seven goals mark our path toward a sustainable and resilient future. Our measurable targets act as road signs. And yearly data analyses help us gauge our progress.

Here’s how we’ll get there: Sustainable fit-outs and highperformance offices Renewable energy purchases Fly less, offset the rest Flexible work, less commuting

6 Support our employees’ passion for community service

One of our first sustainable operations goals, set in 2014, was to achieve carbon-neutral business operations by 2030. Data showed us where to start and keeps us informed about our business-related emissions (2020 figures in parentheses). Each year, we conduct a commuting survey (1,458 metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent), gather data on business travel (239 MT CO2e) and heating (401 MT CO2e), and work with operations staff to capture electricity data (1,147 MT CO2e with renewable energy credits). And our green champions conduct waste audits (10 MT CO2e). These data fuel a biennial analysis that calculates our total carbon footprint (2.73 MT CO2e per capita).

This analysis tells us whether or not our carbon footprint is shrinking. In fact, it is: we’ve achieved a 32 percent reduction in total emissions and a 33 percent reduction in per capita emissions since 2018. To meet our 2030 goal, we’ve been working to reduce our per capita emissions since 2014. Our goal since 2018 has been a 10 percent reduction every two years. In 2030, we’ll offset what little is left. When we first set our 2030 goal, we didn’t just purchase offsets for all emissions and declare instant carbon neutrality. Instead, we invested in a Corporate Responsibility department, began designing new offices and major renovations for LEED certification, and established grants for energy-efficiency improvements in our offices. And since air travel is business-critical, for the past seven years, we’ve purchased offsets to compensate for related emissions. We know we’ll reach our goals by 2030, because we’re constantly checking our progress.

7 Accelerate leadership development & growth opportunities

11K hours

of community service on timesheets since 2014 We use data-driven analysis to measure our progress toward the seven corporate responsibility goals shown here, along with some of the indicators we measure annually to gauge our progress. How are we measuring up? Go to ThorntonTomasetti.com/Corporate-Responsibility-Report.

87% of

employees have someone encouraging their development 15

Building Great Workplaces For many of us, the pandemic moved our interactions out of the office and onto a series of screens. Work happened almost anytime, anywhere. And sometimes we got to see new sides of one another.

Pete Lopez/Thornton Tomasetti

Hidden Heroes: The IT Department Saves the Day

Early in the pandemic, IT Help Desk Manager Pete Lopez was setting up around a dozen laptops per week in his basement.

ffective planning, hard work and a little luck. That’s what it took to rapidly transform our work environment to meet the challenges of COVID-19.

travel to their offices, IT staff worked from their homes, setting up dozens of computers simultaneously and shipping them to employees around the world.

Prior to the pandemic, our IT department had rolled out several upgrades, including a new computerized phone system (RingCentral) and a collaboration platform (Microsoft Teams). Though we didn’t know it yet, the virtual conferencing and communications capabilities of these platforms would become invaluable. And fortunately, we’d just finalized a new business continuity plan in early 2020, which became a road map for the IT department’s pandemic response.

Employees working remotely need dependable network access. When our number of daily VPN users surged from about 100 to more than 1,000, IT came to the rescue. They migrated the entire system to GlobalProtect, a more secure and reliable virtual private network, which amped up access speeds and nearly eliminated dropped connections. An additional upgrade, from Citrix to Windows Virtual Desktop, ensured that all employees have access to a powerful remote computer that can perform computationally demanding work.

When news of the potential seriousness of the pandemic hit, IT mobilized to quickly get laptops to the many employees who would have to start working remotely. They accelerated their purchase plan, ordering a 12-month supply of computers, laptops and peripherals at the beginning of the year. With so much equipment arriving, and employees unable to safely

“Everyone in IT has done something heroic to allow our work to continue in these extraordinary conditions,” says Chief Information Officer Jim Dray, “protecting the security of critical data, burning the midnight oil, solving problems for people around the world. It’s been an amazing experience, and I’m extremely proud of how our people have stepped up.”

(Left) Need caption to go here that describes what the image at the left is all about. Not naming name.

BUILDING GREAT WORKPLACES

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Lorenzo Sanjuan/Thornton Tomasetti

We celebrated International Women’s Day in our offices around the world. In New York, our people made pledges to support the 2020 theme of “Each for Equal.”

hen George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in May 2020, issues of racism and inequity were thrust back into the spotlight – and taken up by millions around the world. At Thornton Tomasetti, our equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) committee was in the midst of launching two new employee network groups (ENGs). In response to the urgently renewed calls for social justice, the gradual rollouts planned for Mosaic (focusing on multicultural issues) and Spectrum (LGBTQIA+) became a sudden debut. The new ENGs held several virtual conversations that provided opportunities to discuss sensitive but important topics with their peers and leaders, to listen, learn and reflect (p. 21). Our first ENG, Women@TT, launched several years ago. The group’s success in engaging, elevating and inspiring women has served as a model for the new groups. In 2020, 83 percent of women at the firm had access to a local chapter. Our ENGs have big plans for 2021, including formal learning programs and ongoing forums. What did 2020 teach us about building inclusive workplaces? It showed us the importance of responding flexibly to unforeseen events while staying true to our goal of cultivating a welcoming and rewarding environment where everyone can achieve their full potential. Learn more about our history of support for equity, diversity and inclusion at TTAnnualReview.com/EDI.

31%

90%

35%

employees who are women

retention rate for female employees

employees of nonwhite ethnicity or race

Lifestyle-Friendly Work

he COVID-19 pandemic quickly changed the nature of everyday work and prompted new approaches to employee benefits and wellness. 85 percent of our staff moved to a new normal of remote, flexible – and still very productive – work (p. 17). During this disruptive year, we maintained nearly all benefits, and in 2021, the few cuts we made have been reversed. We also saw continued use of parental leave, with a notable twist: fathers and mothers used the benefit almost equally. The pandemic sharpened our focus on wellness and health. By supplying our offices with personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks, barriers and cleaning supplies, and developing our

Career Development & Learning “ We know we attract the best and brightest young professionals. But we recognized that we also needed an effective approach to investing in and developing leaders.” – Mike Squarzini, Co-CEO

106 204 28 people engaged in leadership training Our CoP leaders (three not pictured) dedicate time and energy to advancing technical excellence among their peers.

participants in technical and project management training

communities of practice

very successful business needs a robust pipeline of future leaders. How do we provide development opportunities that strengthen our culture and foster a passion for innovation?

nitty-gritty on the business of our work. Released in 2020, Project Management in the Office is a 12-session guide that reinforces lessons from earlier face-to-face training.

In 2020, our inaugural Action Leadership Challenge invited 20 potential future leaders to collaborate in small teams to develop fresh strategies for meeting the firm’s five-year goals.

We also continue to grow our communities of practice (CoPs). These topic-focused knowledge management groups – open to all employees regardless of practice, department or location – promote collaboration and innovation. Our 28 CoPs provide informal professional advancement and learning opportunities that complement our more formal training programs.

We also launched new learning sessions on “soft skills” topics such as delegation, cultural awareness and time management. These initiatives follow our project management training – the

Healthy Reentry app (p. 24), we helped protect employees when they couldn’t work remotely.

251

Because prevention is the best medicine, we rolled out several new wellness offerings. We provided subscriptions to a physical activity challenge program and memberships in a meditation and mindfulness app. We also awarded 13 competitive grants to offices for items that went beyond PPE – such as touchless appliances, air purifiers and fans, and the pursuit of the WELL HealthSafety Rating for our new headquarters in New York (p. 32).

employees claiming fitness reimbursement

377 participants in our first walking challenge

400 employees engaged in meditation/mindfulness Employees celebrated 2020 Pride Day by wearing rainbow masks and sharing photos with co-workers. Here, a New York employee and her family join in.

BUILDING GREAT WORKPLACES

Working Toward Equity

here’s no sugarcoating it: the past year has been a difficult one. Global pandemic. Upheaval and reckoning around issues of racial and social justice. Polarization and unrest. All of these have caused pain, anger and heartache. How should we respond? As leaders, how can we help our employees, our communities and our industry embrace these challenges, promote progress and emerge stronger? We don’t have all the answers, but we know we must keep striving to make Thornton Tomasetti a workplace that is equitable and welcoming to all. So we asked our people what they need from us. We listened and learned. And now we’re working harder than ever to forge a culture that embraces talented people of every race, gender, culture, sexual orientation and disability status. It’s a work in progress, but we’re committed to seeing it through. Are these efforts good for business? Yes. By cultivating an environment where everyone can be their authentic selves, we nurture the creativity that best serves our clients. But it’s also our duty – as business leaders and as human beings – to work for greater justice and equity. Wayne Stocks President ED&I Executive Advocate

Peggy Van Eepoel Senior Principal ED&I Executive Advocate

Learn more about our history of support for equity, diversity and inclusion at TTAnnualReview.com/EDI..

How are we prioritizing equity, diversity and inclusion? Here are some examples. J anuary 2020: Renamed our inclusion and diversity committee and initiative (from I+D, a name selected in 2016) to incorporate equity, the desired outcome. M ay 2020: Completed the launch of two new employee network groups, Mosaic and Spectrum (p. 18). The formal announcement at our annual shareholders meeting coincided with the introduction of dedicated discussion spaces on our social intranet. J une 2020: The ED&I team launched Conversations to Create Lasting Change, an ongoing series of firmwide virtual discussions, which include presentations and small-group breakout sessions. The first of these addressed the death of George Floyd. Subsequent conversations have dealt with understanding our unconscious biases and reflections on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. J une 2020: A firmwide virtual Pride event invited several panelists to present their experiences as LGBTQIA+ engineers in the AEC industry. June 19, 2020: On Juneteenth, Thornton Tomasetti closed for a day of reflection. All employees were invited to join in the second of our Conversations to Create Lasting Change. Staff shared experiences and asked questions about racial bias and how it affects us all. J uly 2020: To celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States, our 100 Miles for 100 Years Challenge invited employees to walk 100 miles (160 kilometers) in four weeks to show support for this historic milestone. August – September 2020: As part of Conversations to Create Lasting Change, the ED&I team rolled out a learning initiative to staff worldwide. Striving to Be Our Best: Understanding Our Unconscious Biases included unconscious-bias self-evaluations and small group discussions. February 2021: As part of Black History Month, the ED&I team released a four-month antiracism course that includes learning sessions and companion discussions and will culminate in a celebration of Juneteenth.

Our Good Work D

esigning for a better world is the future of our industry. Lessons learned from diverse experience – around the globe and across disciplines – give us the tools to address the most challenging social and environmental problems. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we were ready to help. Our people got to work, converting buildings to house expanded medical services, improving indoor air systems, and applying engineering and scientific know-how to streamline the design of critical medical devices. Climate change is another daunting problem that design professionals have an important role in solving. In addition to striving for net zero in our sustainability consulting work, we’re finding new ways to lower carbon emissions in our engineering designs. Through our research and development program, we’re exploring new and better ways to build sustainable and resilient communities. Our commitment to advancing new technologies and fresh ideas nourishes our ability to do work that’s good for the world.

389 green building certification projects since our 2012 Sustainability practice launch

#20 our ranking among Engineering News-Record’s Top 100 Green Buildings Design Firms

$9.2 million

Decarbonizing the Power Sector

e’re working to decarbonize the world’s second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions – the power sector. In one example, our Applied Science team helped a large CCGT power plant take its first steps toward a lower-carbon future. Our client’s operating license required proof that carbon-dioxide capture equipment could be installed. We

performed a high-level feasibility study to determine the size and layout of a facility that could trap over 90 percent of the plant’s carbon-dioxide emissions. The studied solution had to meet regulatory requirements for carbon-dioxide capture and water abstraction while minimizing impacts on plant operations.

A typical combinedcycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant. Our Applied Science team is helping decarbonize facilities like this one.

Courtesy Chang Yung Heo

R&D investment since 2013

Triple-Net-Zero School

Energy: The building, designed by Arrowstreet, will be one of the first all-electric schools in New England and will feature 100 percent on-site energy generation and battery storage. Early in design, we evaluated massing options, and later conducted full-building energy modeling and life-cycle cost analysis. Water: Rainwater collection, gray-water reuse and a septic system will make this the first net-zero-water school in the region. To determine the optimal storage tank size, we modeled daily water flow over 10 years, allowing for critical drought periods. The result? Net savings of more than 2,500 gallons of potable water per day.

Monthly Water Balance Restroom Lavatory Faucet Toilets/Urinals

Rainwater (2017) Gray Water Black Water

Water Quantities (Gal) Demand

hat’s more impressive than getting to net-zero energy use? Going beyond that to achieve net-zero water and waste as well. It’s called “triple net zero,” and it’s the ambitious goal that the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District has set for its new Douglas and Gates Elementary School.

Water Balance

100 50

-50 Supply

-100 -150 -200 -250

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Waste: In addition to establishing a plan to achieve net-zero operational waste, the project also cut waste during development and construction. We worked with Consigli Construction to develop a policy-based approach, outlining methods for reducing the need for packaging,

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

limiting waste, and managing recycling and composting. Ambitious, well-defined goals – along with close collaboration – allowed the team to meet the project’s high sustainable-design standards.

Upon completion, Douglas and Gates Elementary, in Acton, Massachusetts, will be one of the first all-electric schools in New England.

on-site carbon emissions

41% energy savings from ASHRAE 90.1-2013

500,000

©Arrowstreet Inc.

gallons of water savings per year

OUR GOOD WORK

Fast Pivot: Responding to the Pandemic

hen COVID-19 cases surged in the spring of 2020, and again last winter, our engineers, scientists and programmers lent a hand. Here are a few of the ways we helped our clients and communities meet some immediate challenges. Helping Kids & Communities Get Outdoors

Reopening a Hospital for COVID-19 Patients

Courtesy Teddy Kofman/SpaceODT Architects

Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park, Illinois, closed in 2019, but it took more than just turning the lights back on to reopen in 2020 for COVID-19 patients. We reviewed and reinforced the hospital structure to support new air condensers, air-handling units, temporary chillers and generators. The facility’s initial capacity of 230 beds was expandable up to 360.

Preparing for Safe & Efficient Workplace Reentry

Our CORE R&D team developed Healthy Reentry, a health-monitoring and contact-tracing app that supports safer workplace reentry and protects privacy. We made the open-design, web-based app available free of charge, and other firms are customizing it for their own use. 24

Peter A. Konopka/Thornton Tomasetti

Better Ventilators, Faster

Making a Medical Facility at DC’s Convention Center Our life sciences specialists applied their expertise in computational fluid dynamics modeling to help researchers and ventilator manufacturers validate a range of design concepts, including using one ventilator for several patients simultaneously. This model, based on data from Synopsys, shows the pressure gradient in a human lung: blue is low pressure, red is high.

Mark Tamaro/Thornton Tomasetti

Our Doing Good Business initiative (p. 29) worked with Design Advocates – a network of architecture firms and designers who volunteer their time and expertise to collaborate on projects, research and advocacy that serve the public good – to help create safe open space for urban communities. Here, Principal Jim Quinn (right) discusses possibly closing part of 80th Street in Queens for weekend visitors to an adult care center, with (clockwise from foreground) Greg Spock (back to camera) and Christian Cassagnol, both of Queens Community Board 4, and Luke DeCourcey Cregan of Design Advocates.

Associate Rupa Patel at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, where we provided structural engineering services that helped transform the space into a 443-bed medical facility.

The David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care

or Memorial Sloan Kettering’s premier cancer center, we adopted a multilayered approach to resilience, maximizing flood protection while creating an environment that nurtures patients’ physical and emotional well-being.

To safeguard critical operations, we moved all mechanical and medical systems – including massive linearaccelerator vaults – to the upper floors, supported by a series of intricate steel trusses. So instead of waiting in a windowless basement, patients relax in spacious, sunlit rooms, enjoying panoramic views of the East River. We designed the structure for extremely heavy loads to support current and future equipment.

Bess Adler/Thornton Tomasetti

Since the building lies within New York City’s flood zone, we waterproofed the foundation walls, galvanized all steel below the flood line and installed operable barriers that can be raised in the event of a flood.

We supported several cantilevers, a striking part of the design by architects Perkins Eastman and Ennead, with multistory Vierendeel moment frames that keep the structural system out of the way and create large, versatile spaces.

Emergency Response in the Time of COVID-19 n March 2020, a killer tornado touched down in Nashville, Tennessee, and a 5.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Salt Lake City, Utah. From July through November, a succession of hurricanes battered Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. In August, a deadly derecho swept across the Midwest. And from July through December, massive wildfires ravaged the West Coast. Despite the risk of COVID-19 infection, our forensics teams were on the ground within days of each of these events, evaluating the integrity of structures, assessing damage and helping speed recovery. When we couldn’t be on the scene, we worked remotely, using photos and video provided by on-site personnel, to perform inspections and

Rupa Patel/Thornton Tomasetti

Associate Damian Moser assesses the condition of a building in Nashville after it was damaged by blast in December 2020.

prepare diagnostics. Strict adherence to CDC guidelines, regular testing and daily health-status reporting through our

Healthy Reentry app (p. 24) reduced the risk of COVID-19 exposure so our employees could focus on helping communities get back on their feet. 25

OUR GOOD WORK

Delivering Resilience to Metropolitan Park

Courtesy ZGF

The Arlington, Virginia, development includes more than two million square feet of sustainable office space and a two-acre public park. The neighborhood will have direct access to two metro lines, multiple bus routes and commuter trains.

s the structural engineer for Metropolitan Park, the first phase of Amazon’s second headquarters, we were tasked with making major reductions in the project’s embodied carbon. “Structural elements can account for 70 to 80 percent of a building’s embodied carbon,” says Project Engineer Jennifer Greenawalt, “so we have a huge responsibility.”

“ Integrating this project into the surrounding neighborhood – so it benefits both Amazon employees and the entire community – has been a high priority for Amazon and developer JBG Smith.” – Michael Cropper Senior Associate and Project Manager

But resilience is about more than just carbon. Future flexibility – adapting buildings to changing needs rather than replacing them – is a priority. An efficient mix of post-tensioned and nonpost-tensioned slabs allows easy addition of new cores, stairs and other openings later. Much of the space can handle denser occupancy, and landscaped terraces can support occupied space if it’s needed in the future.

The project broke ground in spring 2020. Here, project team members Jennifer Greenawalt, Michael Cropper, Brian Earl (ZGF Architects) and Mike Wood collaborate on-site.

Mostafa Fakharifar/Thornton Tomasetti

We used Beacon, our embodied-carbon measurement tool, to optimize early big-picture decisions. Later, we worked with the project team to develop specifications with targets and guidance to help concrete contractors craft lower-carbon mixes.

Going All-in on Mass Timber

“ One of the great challenges of our time is to bring the beneficial experience of nature into the design of contemporary buildings, landscapes, communities and cities.” – Stephen R. Kellert Nature by Design: The Practice of Biophilic Design

The Canada Pavilion at Dubai’s Expo 2020 features an architectural façade of timber elements arranged in a geometric lattice that represents the coast-to-coast change in elevation across the country. Large glulam V-columns support a breezeway canopy at Texas Health Frisco. The design of the new hospital and medical center includes several mass-timber elements – using biophilic design to enhance the well-being of patients, staff and visitors.

Our engineers are getting creative with mass timber. We’re inventing new technology tools to rapidly evaluate timber framing systems for strength, serviceability and embodied carbon. This makes design and analysis faster and easier – and helps us show how timber can work for a wide array of building types and sizes. We’re doing trailblazing work in performance-based fire engineering, proving that mass-timber structures are safe and durable. And we’re designing groundbreaking buildings, from the world’s tallest timber tower, under construction in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (p. 37), to a hospital in Frisco, Texas, and a pavilion in Dubai.

Courtesy EllisDon Construction Ltd.

sing timber instead of steel or concrete can be a key part of a more resilient future. Timber has a lot going for it. When managed sustainably, it’s a renewable resource that substantially reduces the embodied carbon in a building’s design. It’s a key element of biophilic design. And it’s (literally) flexible, so it performs well in seismic regions. But conventional wisdom has long held that timber is only suitable for a small subset of buildings.

Moving Forward by Giving Back

ur people are passionate about helping their communities, and the Thornton Tomasetti Gives Back program fosters that enthusiasm. Since our community-service benefit began in 2014, we have collectively donated more than 10,000 hours.

Charitable Giving 2020

25% Education 28% Local Giving 6% Renewable Energy 16% Industry Related 25% Thornton Tomasetti Foundation

The program supports “on-the-clock” community service. Employees can use up to two working days each year to serve their local communities. Although the pandemic limited in-person opportunities, our people still logged hundreds of hours in 2020, helping out at food banks, donating blood, lecturing in schools, and more. For 29 years, we’ve worked with high school students through the ACE Mentor Program. In 2020, our employees contributed 2,000 hours – half of them paid – to participation in ACE, mainly in virtual forums. In March 2020, our Bridges to Prosperity team was preparing to travel to Rwanda and build a pedestrian bridge that would connect an isolated community with schools, markets and healthcare. The project was delayed by the pandemic, but our people were still able to provide remote engineering assistance to the organization. Our philanthropic giving helps educate the next generation of AEC professionals, supports organizations that aid underserved communities, and funds local charities in communities where we have offices. Our local giving – which represents 28 percent of our contributions – went to food pantries; the Special Olympics; health-related organizations, like hospices; and other charities.

2020 company-paid community-service hours

Community service challenges our people to grow and build relationships in the communities where we live and work. Pandemic-related postponements and limits on in-person volunteering opportunities lowered our 2020 levels of giving and service. We’re looking forward to resuming normal – or higher – levels of involvement in 2021.

in charitable giving since 2013

Learn more about our giving programs at ThorntonTomasetti.com/Corporate-Responsibility-Report.

ACE Mentor Program students and mentors from our Newark office went on a field trip to the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s materials testing lab, where the students were introduced to the concepts of compression and tension.

Courtesy Frank Lombardi

employees who say they have service opportunities

Doing Good Business with the New York City Housing Authority

As a member of the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC New York), Thornton Tomasetti proposed a forum to help New York City’s largest landlord design for a positive legacy. The forum’s goal? To explore cross-disciplinary best practices and identify integrated solutions that could enhance NYCHA’s modernization efforts. Because one in 15 New Yorkers – including many of the city’s most vulnerable populations – calls NYCHA properties home, NYCHA can have a large impact. Upgrading buildings to improve resident well-being, boost building performance and reduce capital costs would benefit everyone.

Courtesy Studio Gang

e aspire to create a better and more just built environment. Our Doing Good Business initiative deploys our creative problem-solving and multidisciplinary expertise to deliver positive change in our communities. NYCHA’s Holistic Integrated Design Study is one way we apply this concept to realworld problems.

Working with NYCHA, other members of the ACEC New York NYCHA Committee, Studio Gang Architects (leading several members of the American Institute of Architects’ New York chapter) and members of the Construction Management Association of America, we examined case studies to identify opportunities for improvement. Our experts in structural engineering, renewal, façade engineering, sustainability and resilience collaborated to provide holistic input to the study.

NYCHA residents and employees worked with three eminent AEC organizations and private- and publicsector experts to generate several new ideas for modernizing buildings owned by NYCHA.

The result? The group detailed best practices and forward-looking strategies, and gathered information on new and emerging technologies that could benefit the future development of housing in New York. The project culminated in a charette, hosted by NYCHA’s Capital Project Division, with more than 120 participants. NYCHA is publishing the results in a white paper aiming to create positive change and improved outcomes.

Thornton Tomasetti Foundation he Thornton Tomasetti Foundation is an independent 501(c)(3) organization, chaired by Founding Principal Richard Tomasetti and steered by a board of governors that includes members of our staff. In 2020, the foundation granted $95,700 in scholarships and charitable contributions. This supported students in building engineering, design and technology, as well as individuals and organizations pursuing philanthropic initiatives in these areas. Since its inception in 2008, the foundation has distributed $1,298,700 in grants and scholarships. In 2020, the foundation awarded $45,000 to six college students through its national scholarships, the Student Innovation Fellowship, and the Technical Literacy Fellowship. Other organizations that received financial support include Bridges to Prosperity, the Engineers in Action (EIA) Bridge Program, and Engineers for a Sustainable World.

Courtesy Engineers in Action

The foundation supported EIA’s Lubanjiswano Pedestrian Footbridge Project in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Despite the pandemic, students from Penn State and Notre Dame worked remotely with EIA in-country staff to continue the project, which will increase the community’s resilience.

Learn more at ThorntonTomasettiFoundation.org. 29

Built-in Resilience T

he fable is present in many cultures: Aesop tells how the oak trusted in its strength to withstand the storm and was blown over, while the reed that bent with the wind survived. A Chinese proverb repeats it: “A tree that is unbending is easily broken.” Today, communities and organizations face the acute shocks and chronic stress of myriad “winds” that can challenge their ability to function. Focusing on resilience helps them prepare, endure, adapt and thrive.

Our Resilience Consulting Services

olistic. Interdisciplinary. Datadriven. These describe our approach to resilience services.

Courtesy COOKFOX Architects, DPC

We begin with a site-specific analysis of shocks and stresses, including fire, flood, earthquake and climate change, as well as geopolitical, health and security threats, among others. Then we diagnose vulnerabilities in the organization, facility or community.

We performed a site-specific climate risk assessment of the historic Terminal Warehouse in New York City, which is in a flood zone. A performance-based approach yielded cost-effective resilience strategies.

Using this baseline to identify gaps in resilience and prioritize opportunities for improvement, we strategize riskmitigation measures and quantify their resilience benefits, helping stakeholders make key investment decisions. Next comes implementation, followed by monitoring and measurement to support the ongoing evolution of resilience solutions to meet changing conditions and organizational needs.

Better Airflow Modeling for Healthier Indoor Spaces

nderstanding the variables that affect indoor air quality has become a critical capability for responding to the pandemic. We applied our decades of experience in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling to develop new, more powerful ways to help building owners, operators and tenants achieve healthier indoor environments. How? Our engineers develop a model of a space, including its furniture and HVAC systems, and then run a CFD simulation to map the movement of air within the space. The model generates a visualization (at right) that shows the age of the air throughout the space, a useful metric for understanding ventilation quality. This data can be used to inform interior layouts and mechanical engineering design – for new buildings and fit-outs or for upgrades. Optimizing the flow of fresh air has proven benefits for occupant health, comfort and productivity, even beyond COVID-19.

More Fresh Air Needed

Adequate Ventilation

Age of Air (minutes)

Rising to the Challenge of Lowering Embodied Carbon

hornton Tomasetti is an executive sponsor of the SE 2050 Commitment (SE2050.org), a program that calls on structural engineers to achieve net-zero embodied carbon in their projects by 2050. We asked Principal and Structural Engineering Practice Leader Scott Schneider how we can help make that happen.

Are there simple ways to lower embodied carbon now?

How are we going to meet the SE 2050 goal?

Another way is by reusing buildings. After the pandemic, patterns of use may change and push owners to reposition buildings. We need to keep developing more efficient ways to adapt them.

I think we can solve the first half of the problem with the knowledge we have now. We can refine structural layouts, optimize designs and make smart materials selections. But the second half is a real challenge, and the final pieces are something of a moonshot. To really drive embodied carbon to zero, we’ll have to influence other industries to innovate – by greening the electrical grid and changing how materials are manufactured and delivered, for example.

We can make buildings that last longer, so they need to be replaced less often. Paying attention to protective design and resilience is important to extending that life cycle.

What about new materials? That’s where it starts to get really interesting. We have to do things like sequestering carbon. That’s why timber is great (p. 27), even if it’s not new. But there are some very exciting new products, like concrete that can trap carbon dioxide. 31

BUILT-IN RESILIENCE

Performing WELL on Broadway

arly in 2021, staff moved into our new corporate headquarters at 120 Broadway in New York City. Creating sustainable office space was a top priority when we began planning. Then the pandemic hit and revealed the need to do more to ensure a healthy, resilient environment for our people.

How does that play out in the real world? Here are just a few of the many steps we took to help keep our employees and visitors healthy: Conducted a surface-contact assessment to identify high-touch surfaces and inform cleaning and disinfecting protocols

Enter the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and its new WELL Health-Safety Rating, which calls for operational policies and protocols that reduce transmission of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. The program includes annual reviews to ensure these measures are properly carried out.

Performed a risk assessment and developed an emergency management plan for natural, human-caused, technological and health-related emergencies Placed first aid kits and automated external defibrillators throughout the space

Our sustainability practitioners, office operations team and office leaders worked together during the build-out to incorporate features that support occupant health in six core areas recommended by IWBI:

Installed MERV-13 (ISO 16890 ePM1) filters in the airhandling units serving our space Reevaluated existing polices to develop flexible reentry options, which included the development and use of our Healthy Reentry app (p. 24)

Cleaning and sanitization procedures Emergency preparedness programs Air and water quality management Stakeholder engagement and communication

HAND SANITIZER

HEALTH & SAFETY

Innovation

SOCIAL DISTANCING

HERE

6 Feet

Posters provide guidance to help employees and visitors stay healthy.

Avoid: Handshakes, Hugs & Large Crowds

HEALTH & SAFETY

We’re also seeking LEED certification for the new space, which is more than just a great place for our employees to work. It’s also a demonstration of our commitment to sustainability and the well-being of our staff – and a dynamic example of the project certification services we offer to our clients.

Health service resources

Courtesy Shalom Baranes Associates

Mastering a Better Future

Our multidisciplinary teams are helping cities around the world revitalize underdeveloped areas and create new connections for residents. At left, the Burnham Place master plan’s new vision for the rail yards behind Union Station in Washington, D.C.

aster planning has become a critical tool for making communities, campuses and portfolios more resilient. We talked with Project Director Emma Reif about the value of master planning. What is master planning, and why is it valuable? Master planning takes a holistic, longterm look at a site and provides a guide for growth and development. It’s a blueprint for all future development decisions on a site, and considers not just how it will grow and perform economically, but also how the people who occupy that site will live, work and thrive. By definition, master planning is forward-thinking, and it provides an opportunity for an organization, institution or city to think through its core values and put them into practice. There are often many stakeholders involved, sometimes with competing objectives. Working with unbiased thirdparty experts can help align everyone’s priorities and clarify which investments will provide the best returns.

How does master planning increase resilience? We live in a rapidly changing world. Socioeconomic issues are evolving on a global scale. The climate is changing. And we’ve seen that disease outbreaks don’t have borders anymore. Master planning is proactive about limiting potential vulnerabilities and introducing synergies and efficiencies at scale. This has a positive impact on critical issues like safety and security design, sustainability and resilience in the built environment. Who needs a master plan? There’s a large need at the town and city level, both for new development and to evaluate existing building stock to preserve it as long as possible. We’re also seeing interest in other market sectors – in higher education, aviation and transit, hospitality and live-workplay communities. How are cities approaching master planning now? Many cities are looking at their rail yards and other infrastructure. By building over these areas, new developments literally make new space, which can be

integrated with adjacent – often historically neglected – neighborhoods. By forging these connections, thoughtful master planning can help revitalize the entire surrounding area. How do we approach master planning? We collaborate with stakeholders to identify goals and outline strategies to meet them. Next, we leverage rich data to build models – of climate impacts and adaptive infrastructure, pedestrian flow and comfort, threat-mitigation measures, and much more – and use them to refine the program. Finally, we craft a comprehensive plan and deliver a road map for implementation. At Thornton Tomasetti, we bring a diversity of disciplines to the table, including sustainability and resilience, protective design and security, structural engineering, vibration analysis, and more. The people who work on our master-planning projects are subject-matter experts and active practitioners. That depth of knowledge is very valuable when you’re thinking about long-term issues and projecting forward to solutions that might not be available on the market today.

Resilience & the Edge Effect

n the natural world, the humanengineered world and the world of communities, the most interesting things happen at the edges – the transitions where one thing ends and another begins. A new steady state emerges, with some things preserved, some things revised and other things replaced. This review looked at how we redirected our skills during the pandemic to help others adapt, reach a new – and more resilient – stability, and prepare for what comes next. Forecasts predict a long tail to the pandemic. Unlike the sudden start, its end will be gradual. What will the new steady state look like, and how long will it last? The answers may not emerge for some time. But we can be sure that even more interesting work will unfold on the way to finding out.

resilience 34

2021 Ingenuity Awards L ast year, we kicked off an Ingenuity Awards program to encourage and celebrate ingenuity in our projects. This year’s winner and runner-up were selected by a panel of industry leaders from both inside and outside the firm. The people’s choice award was determined by a poll of

WINNER

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies: Fire & Materials Engineering

our employees.

Thank You to Our Panel of Distinguished Judges William Baker Consulting Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Client: HyperloopTT Project Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Renée Cheng Dean of the College of Built Environments, University of Washington

Imagine zooming along at 760 miles per hour – triple the speed of the world’s fastest train – in a capsule that is magnetically levitated inside a vacuum tube. The Hyperloop system promises to transform the transportation industry by allowing you to do just that. We’re working with HyperloopTT to develop the system, which combines cutting-edge composite materials with technology borrowed from aircraft and high-speed trains to create an ultrafast, clean-energy – and completely new – mode of transportation. Drawing on experience with high-risk industries like oil, gas and nuclear energy, our team is working to devise a framework for assessing risks and developing effective mitigation measures. The first commercial prototype is scheduled to be installed in 2023, in Abu Dhabi.

Scott Crawford Principal, LMN Architects Ray Daddazio Senior Consultant, Thornton Tomasetti George Deodatis Santiago and Robertina Calatrava Family Professor, Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Columbia University Claire Johnston Managing Director, Lendlease for Google Real Estate Development Anthony Mosellie Senior Vice President, Related Robert Reid Senior Editor and Features Manager, Civil Engineering Magazine Anna Scott Technical Sales for Public Sector, Intel Corporation

Working in an emerging sector, with no existing regulations or best practices, we’re setting up a robust process to meet future regulatory requirements. We conducted a comprehensive review of materials and fire standards for aircraft and rail, identifying areas from each industry that apply to the Hyperloop technology. Then we adapted the relevant specifications, prioritizing performance-based criteria. Standard modeling software isn’t designed to capture the complexities of the new Hyperloop technology. So we’re developing custom code for existing programs, which will enable us to better predict the system’s behavior. Creative problem-solving is helping our team meet an aggressive delivery schedule. One example? To simplify analysis of fire hazards – such as luggage fires or arson – we developed a categorization system based on fire properties (growth rate, size, heat release, etc.). This lets us identify engineering solutions that prevent or suppress these fire types. Finite-element analysis and other advanced simulations reduced the amount of physical testing required. This process will help keep passengers safe, however a fire might originate.

RUNNER-UP

PEOPLE’S CHOICE

Ascent Architect of Record: Korb + Associates Project Location: Milwaukee, WI

Pittsburgh International Airport Terminal: Tree Column Design

When completed, this 284-foot-tall residential tower will be the world’s tallest mass-timber structure – rising three times higher than the tallest mass-timber building in the U.S.

Architect: Gensler + HDR in association with Luis Vidal Project Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Courtesy Gensler + HDR in association with Luis Vidal + Architects

Ascent uses glue-laminated (glulam) columns and beams, with floor slabs of cross-laminated timber. Post-tensioned concrete beams transfer loads from the timber floors to a concrete garage structure below. Concrete-filled steel pipe piles – the highest-capacity piles ever used in Wisconsin – support the superstructure. To obtain approval to build so much taller than the building code prescribes, we had to prove that our design was safe and consistent with the code’s intent. One part of this process was fire-testing real glulam segments to demonstrate a three-hour rating for all exposed columns. The complex project required extensive research into mass timber’s behavior, as well as development of new material standards and custom computational tools. As part of a $1.1 billion terminal modernization, we designed 32 exposed-steel tree-shaped columns. Each column consists of a composite “trunk” of four concrete-filled tubes, which branch off at varying heights to carry the gravity and lateral loads of the organically shaped undulating roof.

Courtesy Korb + Associates Architects

Since building codes don’t cover this unique design, we performed hand calculations and 2D and 3D stability analyses to predict the columns’ capacity under both static and fire loads. We worked with the architect to determine constructable column sizes, and with our CORE studio to rationalize the geometry and minimize the number of column types. A finiteelement representation of the branch-to-trunk connection, which we incorporated into our 3D analysis model, helped assess how forces transfer from the branches to the trunk.

HONORABLE MENTION Cambridge Crossing Parcel G Architect of Record: Perkins & Will (base building), HOK (tenant fit-out) Project Location: Cambridge, MA Climate Pledge Arena – Temporary Roof Support Architect: Populous Project Location: Seattle, WA Evergrande Stadium Concept Design Architect: Gensler Project Location: Guangzhou, China

Improving Damage Prediction of Automotive Components under Multiaxial Bending Loads Client: Novelis Inc. Project Location: Kennesaw, GA Relocation of the False Door of Khufuankh Client: Museum of Fine Arts Project Location: Boston, MA

Structural Evaluation of Rosenwach Two-Compartment Tank Client: Rosenwach Tank Company Project Location: Brooklyn, NY Zero-Carbon Playbook for Existing New York City Office Buildings Client: Hines Development Project Location: New York, NY

Purpose & Values Awards O

VALUE: We are passionate about what we do.

ur employees nominated 86 of their colleagues for the seventh annual Purpose and Values awards. Here are this year’s winners, along with excerpts from their nomination letters.

VALUE: We look beyond the obvious to solve the real problem.

Carolina Simoes Senior Project Engineer, Miami “If you talk to those who work with Carolina about her passion, they’ll likely tell you how she works crazy hours and goes above and beyond the job expectations to make sure each project is a success. While these demonstrations of her true passion deserve recognition, what impresses me even more is her drive to get involved, be helpful and share knowledge, even when there’s nothing in it for her.” – Michelle Olender

Dorian Soler Principal and Director of Office Operations, New York “During these challenging times of COVID, Dorian found vendors, masks, disinfectants and anything else to make sure everyone in his department had the resources they needed for their offices. His ability to look beyond the obvious to solve the real problem allowed him to find the supplies we all needed.” – Jessie Young and Tamara St. Clair

Andy Nelson Principal, Perth “Andy is the go-to person for a number of our clients because he doesn’t start by jumping into a list of big-budget solutions or commit to using one of the standard analytical approaches and then try to fit the solution to the problem. They trust him to develop a pragmatic approach, and they know that if there’s a risk the analysis won’t yield a conclusive answer for, he’ll tell them up front.” – Joanne Tarleton

PURPOSE: We embrace challenges to make lasting contributions.

John Abruzzo Managing Principal, San Francisco “For nearly 20 years, I’ve been perhaps the most visible face of emergency response at Thornton Tomasetti, but John has been the brains, the guts and the indefatigable force that has driven us to make lasting contributions. He’s always calm, fearless and thorough.” – Gary Panariello 38

VALUE: We challenge people to grow.

Many other deserving colleagues were nominated by their peers from across the organization:

Elisabeth Malsch Senior Principal, New York

Stephen Szycher Senior Principal, New York

“Elisabeth supports her people day in, day out. And she always gives enthusiastic and hardworking Thornton Tomasetti staff opportunities to expand their knowledge, to pursue new technical areas, to take on more responsibility on projects and to succeed.” – Adam Hapij and Marguerite Pinto

“Steve encourages his staff to take on greater responsibilities early in their careers. I remember many times, even as a young engineer, being asked to take the lead on projects, attend client meetings and coordinate staff. He strikes the right balance between giving his team the space to rise to the occasion and staying involved enough to provide support when it’s needed.” – Karen Grossett

VALUE: We see opportunity where others focus on risk.

Jeff Elliott Principal, Dallas

Jordan Komp Senior Associate, Milwaukee

“When it made sense for Nick Saenz to move from Dallas to Florida to lead our forensics work in the region and in Central and South America, the Dallas office lost a rainmaker. There was never a complaint from Jeff – he saw the big picture, that this move was beneficial for our firm and our clients.” – Bruce Arita

“Jordan got his start in our Chicago office and volunteered to help start the Milwaukee office in 2017. It showed how much seeing opportunity is woven into who he is. It took guts to stick out his neck and move to a highly competitive market where being local – not from ‘some Chicago firm’ – is so important to clients.” – John Peronto

Alan Ferguson Alberto Cuevas Alejandro Fernandez Amanda Lehman Garvey Andy Morrison Atishay Lahri Badri Hiriyur Blake Berger Bryce Scovill Caridad Gonzalez Chris Klosterman Chrissy Keith Claudia Mazzocchetti David Ojala Ed Lewis Eric Wheeler Garry Clarke Gijs Libourel Greg Johnston Gwendolyn Dowdy Harry Crofton Hector Guerra Hi Sun Choi James Taylor Jeff Luney Jennifer Grau Jennifer Mahan Jenny Sideri Jo Darby Joe Schuster Jose Medero Judian Duran Jun Yu Kaitlyn Christopher Kara Raymond Kate Holt Katie Hansan Post Kelly Koscielny Kerem Gulec

Kui He Kyle Root Leandro Heine Leigh Easden Luke Lombardi Melissa Wong Michael Clarke Mike Udvardy Miles Davis-McCalla Monica Dutro Nathalie Delgado Nick Gladwin Nicola King Paul Robinson Pawel Woelke Peter Taylor Phil Taylor Pooja Jivani Quang Minh Pham Raymond Chou Rebecca Huston Ryan Amburgey Sabina De Jesus Saffron Wyse Sagar Dalal Sarina Singh Srikrishnan Madhavan Stephen Kane Steve Hofmeister Tamara St. Clair Tara Toren-Rudisill Thanh Do Theresa Curtis Thinh Vo Tim Ashworth Ting-Wen Wang Travis Test Vince Aleo Vladimir Gluzov

TTWiiN Innovation Accelerator A

ctivity in the AEC technology sector continued to expand rapidly in 2020, driven by an increase in the number of start-ups offering innovative software solutions, growing interest from venture capitalists, and client users seeking productivity and margin improvements in the face of revenue pressure from COVID-19. Machine learning and artificial intelligence topped the list, followed by integrated platform solutions, among other major trends, with dozens of new products coming to market almost weekly. Thornton Tomasetti continued to lead in this new space with our TTWiiN accelerators, the TTWiiN IP tech investments group and the launch of AEC Angels, a venture capital platform.

OnScale

Hummingbird Kinetics

OnScale released its latest product, OnScale Solve, a web-based engineering simulation environment with the cloud-connected Onshape® app. Now engineers can seamlessly connect Onshape CAD with OnScale to run parametric simulation studies on CloudHPC without the need for expensive hardware. It leverages OnScale’s powerful cloud simulation capabilities and includes new features like computational fluid dynamics. OnScale and PTC/Onshape have partnered to co-market OnScale Solve globally. The company plans to build a large user base in 2021, in part by tapping into the one million academic users currently switching to Onshape from legacy desktop CAD tools like SolidWorks. In 2020, OnScale achieved SOC 2 certification, an important security milestone for cloud companies, which involved rigorous penetration testing by a qualified third party. Achieving SOC 2 compliance gives OnScale’s customers greater confidence that their vital R&D intellectual property is fully protected.

Hummingbird Kinetics continued to pursue opportunities to apply its unique approach to building motion control by collaborating with new clients to adopt the technology in their building plans and permits, which is the first step toward implementing the solution in construction. Hummingbird technology’s IP protection expanded across several key global regions. And new product enhancements will boost space efficiency to make the system work in a wider selection of building properties.

OnScale combines powerful multiphysics solver technology with limitless computing power.

Hummingbird technology is more economical, easier to install and more effective than other damper technologies. It can be distributed throughout a building rather than being installed in a single location.

PUMPKINTM Mounts

AutoSTL

A new licensing arrangement with Taylor Devices Inc., a leading supplier of shock and vibration solutions, will accelerate the manufacturing and distribution of PUMPKINs worldwide. Taylor Devices is developing tooling and manufacturing processes to produce at the required scale and quality and to establish supply chains for PUMPKIN components. Marketing and prototype testing are well advanced. The first order for PUMPKINs under the new arrangement – supporting a NATO evaluation trial – was delivered in February 2021.

This suite of software applications integrates with Tekla Structures to lower design, fabrication and construction costs. AutoSTL’s automation processes give engineers and contractors instant feedback on quantity takeoffs. Its change-management tools enable real-time evaluation of design changes related to material costs and fabrication time. Custom optimization algorithms reduce materials, while built-in intelligence merges steel connection design with detailed modeling and QA/QC to aid fabrication and erection. And AutoSTL gives estimators a steel connection quantity takeoff and enables cost estimation earlier in the design process.

PUMPKIN Mounts offer the secure, efficient protection of X-type mounts, with improved weight capacity.

Konstru This 3D BIM interoperability platform continued to develop during internal use at Thornton Tomasetti, while securing a large contract with an international enterprise user. With its data-rich web visualizations and software-agnostic bidirectional BIM workflows, Konstru is more than a design tool. It now offers perpetual model updates and version control for digital-twin solutions throughout a project’s life cycle. The team is continuing to expand Konstru’s integration to more structural analysis programs to appeal to a wider audience, increase data security on cloud servers and databases, and offer more-customized licensing for enterprise clients. An application programming interface (API) and software development kit will make it easier to build new integrations with the Konstru data interoperability schema.

Konstru’s user-friendly data environment makes 3D BIM collaboration a breeze.

AutoSTL’s speed and reliability enable detailing later in a project’s development, avoiding costly reworks due to last-minute changes.

Swarm/ShapeDiver In July 2020, TTWiiN completed the strategic sale of Swarm to Austria-based ShapeDiver, combining the best elements of their product capabilities, user interfaces, market coverage and global geographic footprint. Since then, the development team has worked to integrate Swarm’s most powerful software integration features – with Revit, Rhino3D and Adobe Illustrator – with ShapeDiver’s robust web and cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) features. The new and improved ShapeDiver parametric design and application platform is set to be released publicly in Q2 2021. ShapeDiver continues to see solid year-over-year growth in annual recurring revenue and project pipeline.

Swarm/ShapeDiver provides powerful tools for your design workflows – without the learning curve. Our online catalog lets designers buy and sell custom parametric solutions.

TTWiiN INNOVATION ACCELERATOR

T2D2 This cloud-based SaaS data-analytics platform, launched in July 2020, uses an AI-powered damage-detection technology to create a digital twin for building envelopes. T2D2 helps property owners and managers locate, assess and track damage early, heading off greater repair costs and safety concerns. Our damagedetection computer vision uses powerful algorithms, trained by Thornton Tomasetti’s unique 1.5-terabyte image library, to autodetect and assess conditions 24-7, feeding an online client portal that provides a time-line view of continuous damage monitoring.

TTWiiN IP Investments in MetaProp, Building Ventures Fund and Shadow Ventures continue to advance, with additional investments in AEC tech start-ups, as well as fund-management support for current investments with a drive to commercial exits. And our investment in XTreeE, a 3D printing platform, continues to grow, with an expanding client base and project pipeline.

A large addressable market – more than 50 million structural square feet in the U.S., with an average building age of 50 years – is driving T2D2 ahead quickly, with contracts in progress and a growing opportunity pipeline.

AEC Angels

AEC Angels made two investments in 2020: OpenSpace (which uses AI to automatically pin photo documentation to plan locations) and Rhumbix (a software platform that connects data across workflows and construction systems). Both are leaders in project-management software. We will continue to review investment opportunities throughout 2021.

Senior Associate Bryson Welch verifies the efflorescence detected by T2D2 on the surface of the bridge.

30% PCW

Design by Barber Graphic Design

Dan Burne/Thornton Tomasetti

The T2D2 portal displays the locations of efflorescence detected on Duck Brook Bridge, Acadia National Park, Maine.

AEC Angels comprises four leading AEC firms: Thornton Tomasetti, StructureTone/STO, Syska Hennessy and SHoP Architects. Its vision? To leverage our collective, complementary knowledge, investing in best-of-class AEC technologies to help transform the industry while driving exposure to leading industry technologies and striving to provide long-term returns over a five-to-seven-year horizon.

www.ThorntonTomasetti.com

We apply scientific and engineering principles to solve the world’s challenges – starting with yours. Whether we’re focused on the design, construction and performance of buildings or expanding into new disciplines, we never limit ourselves, applying our expertise to all types of projects across a range of industries.

Acoustics, Noise & Vibration Aviation Commercial Construction Engineering Critical Facilities Cultural & Community Decarbonization Defense Education Energy Façades

How can we help you?

Forensics & Investigations

We offer solutions for an ever-widening range of services and sectors.

Healthcare & Research

Government Hospitality & Gaming Insurance Life Sciences Protective Design & Security Residential Resilience Restoration & Renewal Special Structures Sports & Public Assembly Structural Design Sustainability Tall & Supertall Buildings Transportation & Infrastructure

Annual Review 2020-2021: Resilience

Articles inside

Resilience