EXPANDING OUR HORIZONS
2017/2018 Annual Report
– page 10
How Can the AEC Industry Thrive?
TURNING IDEAS INTO IP – page 14
THE SHED: THROWING OUT THE COOKBOOK – page 24
HOW FAR CAN AUTOMATION GO? – page 20
“ We’ve all been on the journey from CAD to BIM, and as investors, the question is, what is the next phase? We think it’s connected data. We don’t think of this as a tipping point so much as a unique moment in time.”
Jesse Devitte Borealis Ventures – page 20
“ We don’t need to think about how to insert technology into a process. Instead, we need to think about how we can enable all these people to embrace the technology.”
Josh Emig WeWork
EXECUTIVE MESSAGE – page 2
INTRODUCTION – page 4
How Can the AEC Industry Thrive?
DISRUPTION IN THE AEC INDUSTRY: A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION – page 6
EXPANDING OUR HORIZONS – page 10
ENVISIONING AN ENDURING ORGANIZATION SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2017 – page 13
TURNING IDEAS INTO IP – page 14
CORE AND TTWiiN – pages 18 and 19
HOW FAR CAN AUTOMATION GO? A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION – page 20
THE SHED: THROWING OUT THE COOKBOOK – page 24
CONCLUSION: NAVIGATING RAPID CHANGE – page 28
BUILDING FOUNDATIONS FOR INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY – page 29
PURPOSE & VALUES AWARDS – page 30
THORNTON TOMASETTI FOUNDATION – page 32
OUR PRACTICES – page 33
BOARD OF DIRECTORS & OFFICERS – page 34
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THRIVING AMID DISRUPTIVE CHANGE
W
hen Yogi Berra said, “The future ain’t what it used to be,” he probably wasn’t referring to the collision between artificial intelligence, design, engineering and the built world. But
he would have been right. In the AEC industry, change has accelerated: both consolidation and competition have ramped up, automation is surging, and a growing number of start-ups with innovative business models are entering the market. In just the past two years, we’ve seen the sudden emergence of PropTech (technologically innovative products and new business models for real estate markets) and its cousin, ConTech (digitized construction technology). New players are coming from outside traditional AEC circles, and as venture capitalist Alex Rampell said, “The battle between start-up and incumbent comes down to whether the start-up gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation.” We have entered terrain the military calls VUCA: volatile,
“ Enduring firms have a high degree of vitality, evident in their capacity to explore new options, renew strategy and grow sustainably. And the most vital firms do this quickly, with a sense of urgency.”
uncertain, complex and ambiguous. In places, these changes remain invisible to some. An ironworker on a construction site today sees processes similar to those of 50 years ago. But a venture capitalist visiting that site sees a vertical with incredible market potential, ready for invasion. In this year’s report, we scan the horizon, since change often comes from mavericks willing to place bets against the standing business model. We also invited peers, colleagues – and yes, competitors – to share their ideas about new or disruptive technologies and models. We asked some hard questions: Does the future belong to engineering firms that do software development, or to software firms that do engineering? How can a culture of innovation – where failure is a badge of honor – thrive in the AEC world, where admitting failure usually triggers a call to a lawyer? Do we have the foresight, talent and courage to become self-disruptors? What preconditions allow truly innovative projects to succeed?
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The temptation in a VUCA environment is to throw up our hands and say it can’t be managed. But models from other industries show there is a way. Enduring firms have a high degree of vitality, evident in their capacity to explore new options, renew strategy and grow sustainably. And the most vital firms do this quickly, with a sense of urgency. What can we do to maintain and improve the vitality of our industry? Planning almost always looks in the rearview mirror, using indicators of past financial performance to guide future actions. This works in a stable environment, but not in the midst of disruptive change. Are there better measures of our potential to grow and our ability to achieve that potential? Do we have the right technology and strategy? Are we cultivating the right talent? How do we benchmark these variables and measure our progress? The discussions in this report are part of a larger debate taking place in every industry. We hope you find this exploration thought-provoking, and we invite you to join the effort to enhance the vitality of our industry, its companies and its people.
Tom Scarangello Chairman & CEO
Ray Daddazio President
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How Can the AEC Industry Thrive?
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hree years ago, we asked where the AEC industry would go in the next 20 years. We talked to architects, engineers and contractors, as well as academic researchers, authors and other thinkers, about the tools and processes that are reshaping the way the built environment is envisioned, designed and constructed. In the brief intervening time, some of those innovations advanced faster than many of us expected. Automation – in both design and construction – has already arrived in niche applications, and evidence suggests it will expand rapidly. More changes are coming. Entrepreneurs and innovators from beyond traditional AEC boundaries are exploring new technologies and business models that will influence, and perhaps disrupt, our industry. And machine learning and artificial intelligence are making swift strides. What should we be doing to prepare? How can we embrace, adapt to and lead these changes? In short – where should we place our bets? This report is an attempt to frame the right questions, gather leading thinkers and explore possibilities that will help our industry thrive in a rapidly changing environment. 2017/2018 THORNTON TOMASETTI ANNUAL REPORT
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“ Our most valuable product may not be our designs or IP but our data. Maybe the suitor who wants to buy your company is an aggregator of data.” Riccardo Mascia HOK
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Riccardo: We’ve seen quite a bit of evolution in this industry over the past 10 years, but it hasn’t been a revolution. It’s been about making better tools, becoming more efficient – integrating technology to automate the objective parts of our work, like using parametric modeling to come up with a better core, or typical column sizes, or the best sustainability strategy.
Panelists Zach Aarons Project Manager, Millennium Partners Co-Founder and Partner MetaProp NYC Cory Brugger Chief Technology Officer HKS Riccardo Mascia Architect & Managing Principal HOK Claudia Pavan Project Manager Cimolai S.p.A. KP Reddy Co-Founder The Combine Brett Young CEO and Founder Building System Planning, Inc. Moderator Dennis Shelden Director, Digital Building Laboratory Associate Professor, Georgia Tech
Dennis Shelden
Dennis: The impact of technology on business and culture in the AEC industry is clearly accelerating. Disruption has a flavor of Silicon Valley, in terms of technology’s impact on business models and of capitalizing on and monetizing radical change. Can we sort out where the AEC industry is along that spectrum of change?
We’re all about optimization, but that doesn’t help us answer subjective questions: “Is this a beautiful building? Will this make a great place? How will it impact the community?” As designers and engineers, we’ve seen our work commoditized and its scope reduced. Now there are contractors and developers who can do what we do.
Cory: I’m interested in data governance and how we could capitalize on use cases beyond providing the services of design and construction. If you look at outside disruption and the creation of digitized value chains, the architecture itself – the design of a space – would have nothing to do with it. It’s what we can gather from the use of buildings that becomes beneficial to our industry.
Here’s the scary part: The New York Times recently ran a story on an AI facial-recognition program. By learning certain patterns in a few days, the program was able to construct a beautiful face, based on millions of data points. Researchers put these constructs next to photos of real people and asked respondents, “Can you tell the difference?” And they couldn’t.
Companies like Amazon and Google are already tracking what we do and say through Echo and Google Home. How can we benefit clients and monetize those services post-construction? This is where outside industries see more value in AEC than we do, as architects or designers. The future is less about bricks and mortar and more about people and data.
This says to me that at some point, you’re going to be able to push a button and not only optimize a core and the building envelope and the best sunlight strategy, but develop a beautiful building. I don’t know about you, but I’m an architect, and I’m asking myself, “Why do they need me?” So the disruption I worry about isn’t monetizing what we have. It’s something new. KP: In our industry, we tend to forget who the customer is. Over the past five years, I’ve talked to more than 100 owners, and they don’t care about Revit or parametrics. They don’t care
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about you doing your job better or more efficiently. That’s your problem. When designers or the built-environment community come up with something disruptive, they are not able to demonstrate its value to an owner. “You have BIM? Great! Now I can pay you 10 percent less. Robotics? Terrific – I can pay 50 percent less.” Give me real data that tells me I can build a building cheaper and better, one that performs over the long term. Most designers and contractors can’t even tell an owner what their operational costs will be for the next five years, forget about 15 years. We get caught up in our own brains around innovation, disruption and what it means to us. But what matters is what it means to the owner.
KP Reddy
Zach: Let me push back on that. As a client of these types of firms, we send a lot of technology platforms to the people who are doing the work for us. We’re not withholding interesting articles about innovation. Our attitude isn’t, “Let’s replace these people right now.” It’s, “Let’s help them, and maybe we’ll save money and get higher efficiency because of it.” Fundamentally,
clients want their buildings built more efficiently, so they want to enable the consultants as best they can, whether that’s the GC, geotech or the architect. I introduced our architects to Envelope, which was incubated by SHoP Architects. Handel Architects and SHoP embraced Architizer early on. Innovation is a push and pull. There are definitely clients who love that you are embracing technology, and it’s not necessarily to destroy you in the long term. It’s a short-term objective of building more efficiently. Dennis: What opportunities for new services or business models are emerging in this changing landscape? Claudia: I represent a fabricator working with architects, engineers and developers, with whom we have great relationships. We’re the last link in the chain, working directly from models, and we do everything in-house: design, detailing, fabrication and coordination. We believe in transparency with all team players to build trust. No one else is taking this end-to-end approach. In what we do, experience makes the difference. Many people who have been with our firm for 30 years know, for example, how to heat steel to bend it. That’s an added value that comes from collective experience. So that makes us really different from anybody else. Loyalty counts, since it concentrates knowledge and makes it available. Ten years ago, we didn’t have relationships with developers or architects. We had relationships with contractors or subcontractors. And then an internal integration of services – consulting, design and fabrication – required new relationships.
Zach Aarons
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Claudia Pavan
Dennis: Yours is an example of new opportunities emerging out of evolving roles and relationships. Developers must be seeing a value proposition in your approach. What do you do next, and how do you stay ahead of the curve? Zach: The most attractive companies to venture capitalists in the real-estate tech space in the past 18 months have all been tech-enabled service companies: WeWork, Compass, Redfin, Katerra, Opendoor. I think there’s a chance the industry will spawn even more. WeWork is trying to get into construction vertical integration activities. Convene has a fully integrated designbuild team. When you have homegrown IP, you have to decide, should I kill this thing; keep it in-house in core services; or spin it out as a SaaS, or software as a service, product or as a tech-enabled services company? Riccardo: As Cory mentioned earlier, our most valuable product may not be our designs or IP but our data. Maybe the suitor who wants to buy your company is an aggregator of data. It could be Google or IBM. “Let’s buy up all your data – not because we want you as engineers or care about you as architects. We just want your data.” They’ll figure out its meaning and use it as a platform for themselves. Dennis: We’ve talked mainly about outside forces acting on our firms or our business models. Let’s look inside our firms: How do we become self-disruptors? Do you see that as an imperative?
Cory: I see two approaches to technology in our industry. The first is addressing inefficiencies in design and construction processes. In most cases, this results in incremental changes that provide slight improvement. But we’re typically interested only in the direct outcomes: “The project is done, let’s move on.” The second approach has a long-term goal of improving the entire project life cycle. Through the application of data-driven processes, firms are looking to improve project outcomes by continuously assessing designs from early simulations through post-occupancy performance. This process allows us, as an industry, to create digital value chains that inform new development through the real-time application of building information. This approach is moving in the right direction. To self-disrupt, however, architects and engineers need to start thinking about how we monitor, maintain and support a global infrastructure, rather than just how we design it. KP: When people ask me, “What can we do to self-disrupt?” I tell them step one is compensation. Right now, the people at the top are motivated to sell their stock to the people in the middle. That’s the succession plan. The disruption we need is to rethink this traditional
compensation model. This means paying people at the bottom based on their talent and their market value, and that’s not $75,000 a year. The new CTO of Walmart makes 10 times more than the CEO. The CEO is a commodity, the CTO is not. In AEC, the system is based on seniority and pay bands and whether you get your license, and that’s a broken system. If you really want to disrupt your organization, you say, “The people at the bottom doing innovative, disruptive things need to make more than the CEO. Period.” That’s where I would start. Brett: In our business, the most exciting thing is tracking how people build buildings now. We have a clash-detection tool that allows us to track every element that’s been modified, added or deleted by every user on a project, with their name, the time stamp, what room it happened in and what they did. That big data lake tells us how a building will go together. When we add automation, we’ll have a bright red line showing how we’ve deviated from a baseline and how we’ve improved. It can be pretty disruptive to tell someone, “Hey, you’ve moved a door five times.” Dennis: What are the disruptive impacts of version tracking on the firms that you’re working with?
Brett Young
Brett: The people who don’t want to be tracked will leave. The people who perform well will get paid more. We can define and characterize owner change in a data-driven way. When you add innovation, you can track the value of the innovation. We tend to think of innovation, like automation, as being about a robot or a computer doing a thing, but that isn’t how it works. A person will use automation, and they will get credit for the automation as it’s applied to a project. That person gets the value of the automation added to their bucket of how they’re working smarter and better. That’s how we see it in the near term. In my world – and perhaps for all of us – there are two things that are more important than patents: customers and data. As a firm, you get to keep your data. That becomes what you do. And you can use that data to your advantage. That may be the next big disruption. To read the full discussion, go to ThorntonTomasetti.com/ Disruption_in_the_AEC_Industry.
“ To self-disrupt, however, architects and engineers need to start thinking about how we monitor, maintain and support a global infrastructure, rather than just how we design it.” Cory Brugger HKS
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I
t’s not news that diversification can mitigate the effects of disruption. Thornton Tomasetti has steadily added practices over the years. By widening our scope of integrated AEC services, we’ve created value for our clients and blunted the impact of increasing commoditization. But in 2017, we moved beyond the conventional boundaries of the AEC world with two new areas of expertise. Here’s how our new Life Sciences and Operational and Technical Security Services are expanding our horizons.
LIFE SCIENCES SERVICES: VIRTUAL HUMAN MODELING (VHM)
With the FDA promoting a “simulation revolution” to reduce the cost and time required for designing and testing new medical solutions, the time was ripe to extend our expertise in advanced modeling to include the medical sector. Our growing team of experts in digital modeling and biomechanics, based primarily in our Silicon Valley office, is developing and deploying innovative techniques for simulating the human body and organs – the heart, vasculature, brain and skin – and interactions between these organs and various devices. We apply a host of modeling and simulation domains and techniques to these challenges: solid mechanics, computational fluid dynamics, shape and parametric optimization, uncertainty and probabilistic assessment, electromagnetics, tissue mechanics, and more. Coupled with statistical methods and rigorous validation and verification principles, VHM facilitates the development of medical devices, wearable electronics, clothing and protective devices, consumer-friendly packaging, and other products that must interact well with the human body. Life Sciences clients include medical device manufacturers, hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and consumer goods companies – or anyone developing innovative and personalized solutions.
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HOW VHM HELPS Heart: We simulate the behavior of cardiovascular devices – stents, valves and rings – not only as a surrogate for bench tests, but also to study their interaction with virtual models of the heart, which provides a deeper understanding of how these devices will perform in real patients. Skin: New drug types and increased use of self-administered treatments are driving innovative delivery methods. Realistic modeling of skin and underlying tissues enables virtual testing, a faster, less expensive and more detailed supplement to physical testing. Scalable Human Models: While some applications require precise representations of specific organs, scalable models can provide better value when full detail isn’t essential. We are collaborating with software companies to use a library of human models to address the full spectrum of potential needs. The Life Sciences mission includes partnerships with software and technology companies on several initiatives. We are a member of the Living Heart Project (3ds.com), a multidisciplinary program from Dassault Systèmes aimed at developing and validating accurate digital models of the human heart. We’re also collaborating with Synopsys to use their human models as part of our Scalable Human Models initiative and to create streamlined image-to-simulation workflows.
The Living Heart Human Model (right) is a finite element representation of a generic human adult heart. Using it as a starting point, we adjusted several model parameters in the mitral region (left, in red) to make the mitral valve behavior from resulting finite element simulations better match observed behavior in the real world. Such simulations can be used to virtually assess the effectiveness of various types of mitral devices and treatment options.
Life Sciences Leader: Mahesh Kailasam, Ph.D. Vice President & Cupertino Office Director Mahesh has more than 20 years of experience in modeling and analysis techniques that help engineer breakthrough solutions to demanding problems in the life sciences, high-tech, energy and other industries.
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OPERATIONAL AND TECHNICAL SECURITY SERVICES (OTSS)
While OTSS works with our protective design team to integrate holistic security into building design projects, our expertise transcends the AEC industry’s boundaries. We partner with facility owners and operators, configuring every aspect of their operations to maximize security. We provide guidance on sensing and visualization technologies, security staffing levels and training, as well as other operational guidelines. HOW OTSS HELPS Risk, from natural events, accidents or intentional acts, is universal. But the greater frequency of violent incidents and cybercrimes has made operational and technical security a growing priority for more facility owners and operators in all market sectors. OTSS reduces risk by identifying potential threats, then mitigating vulnerabilities and limiting consequences by crafting holistic, layered approaches that maximize effectiveness and value. WHAT WE DO Threat Vulnerability Risk Assessment (TVRA): Our experts – in counterterrorism, countertheft, cybersecurity, and electronic and physical security – provide information that allows proactive and predictive protection of critical assets, infrastructure and personnel. We develop TVRAs in four tiers, each tailored to different types of clients and facilities. Tier 1: Initial evaluation to understand overall risk levels in standard commercial buildings and noncritical facilities. Tier 2: Basic analysis to provide a more detailed assessment of risks and mitigation options. Tier 3: Highly detailed evaluation, including on-site investigation, of potential perils. Recommended for highrisk, iconic commercial buildings; government facilities; hospitals; and high-value infrastructure assets.
OTSS Leader: Bill Edwards Vice President of Security Services A recently retired U.S. Army colonel with a 27-year military career, Bill heads the growing OTSS team. He has managed complex, multimillion-dollar projects and has also designed security solutions and upgrades to new and existing infrastructure.
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AERIAL COMMAND CENTER
FUSION CENTER
PERIMETER
LAYERED SECURITY
SUBTERRANEAN
EXTERIOR
INTERIOR
Tier 4: Our most comprehensive analysis, typically required only for high-value and critical infrastructure assets. We also provide specialized services to help clients respond to risks identified by TVRAs. Security Protection: We take a holistic, customized approach to our clients’ security needs. We offer complete, ground-up security design, with fully specified and integrated hardware, devices, software and sensors. We can also provide multiphase designs that allow clients to add layers to their security over time, as budgets or appropriations allow. Security Readiness: We enable the integration of security technologies by mining data, then extracting key elements to drive an informed response. Our support includes defining critical requirements for staffing, duties and procedures. Procurement & Supply: We offer complete procurement and supply services for the security solutions we design, ensuring that all equipment meets specifications. Implementation: Proper integration and implementation of security equipment is vital. Our experienced staff can verify that our recommendations are correctly carried out. Life-Cycle Support: Security threats – and the technology to counter them – evolve constantly. We provide ongoing recommendations for keeping security infrastructure up to date.
ENVISIONING AN ENDURING ORGANIZATION SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2017 Thornton Tomasetti’s core ideology is our roadmap for achieving far-reaching ambitions. It describes our purpose and how we pursue it, our goals, and the firm we want to be. In 2017, we added a new signpost: “Our Enduring Organization” charts our path to success by way of the triple bottom line, an accounting framework that measures a corporation’s social, environmental and financial performance. Simply put, we believe true success must involve investment in people, planet and profit. Our sustainability report for 2017 shows how we are working to improve all three areas. PEOPLE Learn how we strive to develop our people’s skills and create a healthy and inclusive workplace.
PLANET Find out how we act as stewards of our environment and leave positive legacies in our communities.
Our Sustainability Report 2017 will be released in June 2018. Find it at GreenReport.ThorntonTomasetti.com.
PROFIT Discover the ways we are pursuing long-term sustainable growth.
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A
dvances in technology are blurring the boundaries of what was once a well-defined, well-insulated AEC industry. While the initial drive for in-house product development may have been motivated by the shortcomings of commercial software, firms are now developing a wide variety of tools and products. Leveraging intellectual capital (the collective knowledge of a firm’s employees) to produce intellectual properties (devices, services and software) that are useful in the AEC industry, or applicable outside it, can enhance a company’s prestige and help retain talent by providing diverse career paths. And selling these products can recoup their development costs. But while in-house product development offers certain undeniable benefits, it isn’t without challenges: Engineering companies need to hire qualified subject-matter experts, and are now competing for talent with companies from a range of industries and market sectors, including tech giants, fabricators, manufacturers, and even bioscience firms. Across the AEC industry – and increasingly, from outside it (see page 6) – people are stepping up and recognizing the opportunities in developing IP. Seeding the discussion are a growing number of channels for discovery of the “adjacent possible,” including innovation tournaments, hackathons and new communities like BuiltWorlds and Architizer. The number of funding models has also grown. Companies are self-funding research and development, venture capitalists are investing in our industry, and some AEC firms are making investments in innovation to ensure they can escape the AEC echo chamber and be exposed to fresh thinking. How widespread is AEC product and software development? What are its benefits, and how might it transform the industry? We spoke to professionals from four firms in various stages of formulating and maintaining in-house R&D labs. Here’s what they had to say.
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“ Every building is unique. If you want to do things right, you need a unique toolkit to tackle each project.”
Roderick Bates KieranTimberlake
KieranTimberlake is among a handful of AEC firms that have developed a diverse suite of software tools and products for both internal use and external markets. The firm employs around 120 people, and its product-development component resides largely within its research group, which comprises about 10 percent of the staff. As a principal who specializes in environmental management and commercialization, Roderick oversees business market assessments, develops IP strategies and explores opportunities for transforming the firm’s in-house technology into commercial products. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the types of product development your firm pursues? While we develop a variety of products, including building systems, hardware and software, we like software for lots of reasons: It allows us to quickly develop novel products that address challenging, complex problems in the AEC industry. It also presents significant opportunities for collaboration – for example, when we worked with thinkstep and Autodesk to develop Tally, a Revit plug-in that enables users to quantify the embodied environmental impact of building materials. Another benefit is that the marginal cost of software is initially near zero. Actually, it’s often nonlinear: very low until you have so many users that you have to make major changes. This frees up resources for new product development. As for other product types, once you put something out there, a lot
Courtesy Ed Wheeler
As more firms initiate in-house product and software development, the boundaries of the AEC industry are beginning to fade.
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of maintenance and customer service obligations come along with it that are not as easily addressed as they might be with software. How do your firm’s internal tools differ from those you market externally? Many of our internal tools are stripped-down – crude in some ways, but they work very well for their intended application. It’s much more complex to make commercial software, because a lot of effort goes into account structures, user interfaces, ensuring robustness and improving functionality across all types of uses. You also can’t underestimate the complexities that go into license management, customer service, security, long-term maintenance and upkeep. Managing all of these requirements is challenging, especially for smaller firms that may already be resource limited. Does your firm have a formal process for identifying ideas and encouraging their development? We’re an ISO-certified firm. One of the requirements is having management processes for everything. For product development, we create proofs of concept and perform market assessments and reviews of potential and existing IP, all of which are then evaluated by our partners. If a concept passes these filters and reaches an advanced level of prototyping, it goes into product development, which is also mapped out. After the product has been proven, we transfer it to our affiliate company, KT Innovations, for commercial development.
“ Everything we produce is developed with an eye toward external sales.”
regor Vilkner G Energy Metrics
Gregor is vice president and product lead for data center infrastructure management at Energy Metrics. The firm produces software for the monitoring, climate control and facility management of data centers, bank branches and offices. As a former AEC industry member who now develops applications for the post-design built environment, he offers a unique perspective on the subject of AEC firms as software developers. What are the obstacles to internal product and software development for AEC firms? CORE is a wonderful abnormality at Thornton Tomasetti, and is rare among firms in the industry (see page 18). Far from being early adapters, AEC firms have been slow to institute
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internal development programs for software and other types of products. The industry’s project focus leads firms to keep everything as low-cost as possible, and this often exerts a braking influence on IP development. In many AEC firms, there is no real career path for coders; you get put in a corner someplace, because you’re not what the company is all about. Many engineering schools don’t require that students learn to code, so many graduate without the necessary skills. Another problem is the emphasis on seniority, which often creates generational conflicts that delay progress for software developers. What do you see as possible solutions to these problems? The construction and facility management industries are ripe for disruption that’s just not happening. I would like to see this disruption come from within the industry, but I don’t know if there’s enough creativity there. The answer might lie in interdisciplinary collaboration, forming teams across firms that combine coding and engineering expertise, or mandating within individual firms that every design team have somebody who knows how to write code.
“ If you are a design services company, but you don’t have a software development team, you’re not long for this world.”
hane Burger S Woods Bagot
Shane is the global director of technical innovation at Woods Bagot, an architecture firm with more than 900 employees worldwide. As the leader of a team of software professionals focused on developing plug-ins, modifications and interfaces for computer design applications, Shane is always on the lookout for innovations in the use of technology. Most software development at Woods Bagot is carried out and applied internally, and much of that work centers on client workplace management. Shane’s team regularly develops and evaluates widgets and tools for specific projects, but if one of them appears to have broader applications, the team may generalize it and deploy it across the firm. Why is internal software development so important to your firm? We’re focused on driving greater efficiency in the way we automate the delivery of projects, improving feedback on project performance and facilitating better client interaction. You don’t
get that by just buying a license for a software platform. You get that by integrating technology into every part of your process. To do that, you have to have an in-house software development team.
Jaros, Baum & Bolles’ decision to develop innovative software and automation tools was, according to Associate Partner Chris Colasanti, P.E., motivated by JB&B’s ongoing growth, in tandem with a staff looking to work in more creative and innovative ways: “We realized if we were going to continue to grow and enhance our services, we would need to leverage not only more technology, but also our staff’s eagerness to do so.” To harness this enthusiasm, JB&B is laying the groundwork for its own internal R&D lab, akin to Thornton Tomasetti’s CORE. Though the program is in its early stages, the firm is formalizing a framework where ideas for new products, software and automation tools can be fostered. The firm has developed one promising tool with possible broad applications.
Do you see a lot of duplication among AEC companies doing the same work internally? In-house software development won’t be a differentiating factor much longer. Firms are increasingly hiring people with these skills, but we’re not yet at the stage where it’s fully integrated into the company and managed well. It would be great if companies would work together to eliminate duplication of effort. Unfortunately, in architecture, we often assume everything we do is unique and bespoke. And while a lot is unique, a lot isn’t. So why not share it or collaborate? Thornton Tomasetti released TT Toolbox as a Grasshopper plug-in that is available publicly. We released our own set of tools, Wombat, for Rhino and Grasshopper. When firms in the community share their work, everyone benefits.
What inspired your firm to start developing its own tools and software? We’ve found that the available software is not always suited to our needs, because it’s typically developed by people who don’t do what we do. When we can develop our own tools and processes that suit exactly what we need, and can address challenges in a proactive manner, they’re a lot more effective. If you assume technology is going to reduce the number of people-hours to complete projects, the potential exists to redefine how we deal with design and execution on projects as a result of those efficiency gains. And this can open the door to new business lines that complement, expand upon or completely redefine existing ones.
What emerging areas can AEC firms address through product or software development? One promising area is using virtual-reality and augmentedreality gaming engines for project visualization. Digital fabrication is another field of interest. One that is particularly relevant to us is next-generation building-management systems. As architects, we are ideally suited to engage in the conversation around how people experience space and interact with buildings.
What do you see as the future of this type of development? Is this an overarching industry trend? A small fraction of companies – the progressive, forward-thinking innovators – are doing it, and they’re the ones that are going to be successful in the long run. The U.S. construction industry is a multibillion-dollar enterprise, and people have been trying to figure out how to disrupt it, automate it and capitalize on it. But it hasn’t happened yet. That leads me to believe that change will probably happen in a more grassroots way. Rather than some big company coming in and blowing the doors off, I have a feeling it might start from the bottom and happen from within.
“ Sometimes the very thing you’re looking for is standing right in front of you.”
Christopher Colasanti Jaros, Baum & Bolles Consulting Engineers, LLP
Courtesy ShaneYoungPhoto
Will a time come when AEC firms that develop software become software firms that do AEC work? Absolutely. I think it’s going to happen. Software has already eaten so many businesses and has completely upended markets. Many in the design field view this as a threat to the profession, but I don’t see it that way. It’s a threat to the business model architects are accustomed to. A shift will occur in how architecture firms operate. It’s just a question of what the identity of the architecture firm will be 10 years from now.
Will your company’s efforts focus more on software or on product development, for internal use or for external marketing? Right now, my focus is on developing a framework within which the lab can exist and grow. I want to create an environment where people can thrive, innovate, brainstorm and test new ideas. I don’t want to speculate where it will end up, but I’m trusting that sometimes the very thing you’re looking for is standing right in front of you.
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social intranet, and by hosting innovation tournaments twice a year. Of the more than 150 ideas evaluated in 2017, nine were selected for research funding. These encompass such wide-ranging topics as sustainable design and life-cycle management, optimization of building performance under extreme loads and artificial intelligence. Products and technologies developed through CORE can be applied internally or commercialized through TTWiiN, our technology accelerator.
CORE’s 2017 AEC Technology Symposium and Hackathon, held at Cornell Tech’s Tata Innovation Center in New York City, was our largest to date, with more than 150 people attending the symposium and upwards of 100 joining the hackathon. The event attracted participants from AEC firms, software developers and universities in the U.K., Switzerland, Japan and across the United States and generated 16 new software solutions.
Thornton Tomasetti/Ben Howes
ORE is central to the pursuit of our long-term goal to become the global driver of change and innovation in our industry. From incremental process improvements to transformational innovations that give rise to new technologies, CORE coordinates and incubates all our internally funded research and development. CORE comprises two intersecting groups: CORE studio supports short- and medium-term project needs by developing and implementing advanced computational tools, while CORE lab focuses on long-term development (or prototyping) of new methods, capabilities and products through internal R&D projects proposed and led by Thornton Tomasetti staff. CORE aids in the generation and cultivation of innovative ideas by soliciting research proposals through Spark, our
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n 2016, following the merger between Thornton Tomasetti and Weidlinger Associates, we launched TTWiiN to accelerate the development of products and software incubated through our CORE R&D program and prepare them for commercialization. 2017 was an eventful year for the privately held company: In November, we established TTWiiN Investment Partners (TTWiiN IP), an investment vehicle that supports emerging technologies from outside of Thornton Tomasetti’s development platform. TTW iiN IP has already invested in two funds, Borealis Ventures (BorealisVentures.com) and MetaProp NYC (MetaProp.org), and is seeking further opportunities to support innovation in our industry. The four independent companies currently under the TTWiiN umbrella have all reached important stages in their development, several of them with new licensing agreements, partnerships or external funding: Hummingbird Kinetics: In 2017, we entered into an equal partnership with RWDI, a global leader in tuned mass damping solutions, to support our innovative tuned liquid damper. Hummingbird adapts NASA technology, originally designed to reduce vibration in rockets, for use in minimizing windinduced sway in buildings and bridges. The new damper – and the partnership – were formally announced at the 2017 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat International Conference in Australia. HummingbirdKinetics.com
Konstru: Our 3D collaboration platform, which enables data sharing among the most widely used building design and analysis packages, moved out of the beta phase in 2017 and is now up and running, with a growing user base. Important features, including an updated graphical interface and automatic preparation of BIM models for structural analysis, have been added. Konstru.com OnScale (formerly PZFlex): The world’s first software-as-a-service application for computer-aided engineering leverages the virtually unlimited high-performance computing resources of the cloud to provide unprecedented speed and accuracy in solving even the most complex engineering problems. OnScale’s subscription pricing model makes conducting CAE simulations affordable and convenient. OnScale.com PUMPKIN Mounts: Our shock-andvibration mount technology provides protection for critical systems and structures in the military and security, civil and industrial, and transportation sectors. Under a new licensing agreement with Liberty Dynamics, we are now marketing PUMPKIN Mounts throughout Europe and pursuing opportunities in North America. PUMPKINMounts.com “We’re extremely happy with the growth and development of our IP – and with the synergy between TTWiiN and our CORE R&D group,” says Thornton Tomasetti Chairman and CEO Tom Scarangello. “With the addition of TTWiiN IP, we now have a robust platform that will support our goal of being the global driver of change and innovation in our industry.”
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HOW FAR CAN AUTOMATION GO?
Phil Bernstein Lecturer Yale University
Martha Tsigkari Partner Applied Research & Development Foster + Partners
Jesse Devitte Managing Director and Co-Founder Borealis Ventures
Stephen Van Dyck Partner LMN Architects
Josh Emig Head of Research & Development WeWork
Moderator
Panelists
Stacy Scopano Vice President of Innovation Skanska USA 20
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Rob Otani Chief Technology Officer Thornton Tomasetti
Rob Otani
Rob: Automation has been part of the AEC industry since CAD appeared more than 40 years ago. With AI, VR, the internet of things, machine learning and robotics, are we now at a tipping point in its influence? Phil: Yes, but not because of AI, VR, the internet of things, or even machine learning. It’s more due to so many things and processes being digitized in AEC. Stephen: There are two different issues. One is the automation of work, and the other is intelligence or the use of cognitive-like computational behaviors. We’ve been automating stuff for a long time – the printing of books since the Gutenberg press and the drawing process since CAD came around. And BIM is an automated tool. There was a tipping point for automation, to some degree, in the Great Recession, which forced a lot of people into the BIM world. The tipping point for cognitive-like computing is probably going to come when another major economic disruption forces people to get there. Jesse: We’ve all been on the journey from CAD to BIM, and as investors, the question is, what is the next phase? We think it’s connected data. We don’t think of this as a tipping point so much as a unique moment in time. We spent the last year talking to a lot of people in architecture, engineering
and construction firms about the future of investment in this industry. Many of them are asking themselves the same question. All of these connected data technologies are arriving on the scene simultaneously. Everyone’s trying to figure out whether they’re applicable and what they mean for their business, their practice and their customers. Stacy: From the construction side, this is a time of churn, not tip. We have new ingredients on the table, an explosion of start-ups and the death of start-ups. When the tipping point is really coming, you will see true digestion of those ingredients and their convergence. Right now, I just see VR for VR’s sake. I see 1,000 opportunities for AI. And we’re really unpacking what people mean, on a spectrum from machine-learning applications to true artificial intelligence. Almost every technology I’ve dealt with has bounced over to the customer space, and they’re asking, “Here are a bunch of hammers. Can you tell us where the nails are?” This is why I get a sense of churn. Rob: How will AI change automation – and beyond? How far can we go with this? Phil: The father-son team of Daniel and David Susskind, from Oxford University, has written a book, The Future of the Professions, in which they assert that machine learning and artificial intelligence will eliminate the need for professionals within a generation. You won’t need architects, engineers, lawyers. It’s already started. An automated radiology algorithm can now read a regular x-ray better than a doctor can. Sixty million disputes on eBay were resolved by an algorithm. A lot of work that architects and engineers do is straight production: that’s going to go away first. Then basic decisionmaking is going to go away – structural engineers are probably the first to go,
because you’ve been so rigorous about proceduralizing all your knowledge and your work. Stephen: When we talk about AI, productivity and the effects of cognitive computing, we need to separate A and E and C, because each will be affected differently and at a different pace. Jesse: There is no shortage of AI start-up ventures working to get funding around the engineering space, because precision and procedure are highly valued and amenable to cognitive computing. Stacy: Exactly. Anyone, like engineers, who has good structuring of their information, from accounting to codes, will most likely see the earliest signs of automation. Those professions and roles that generate or consume unstructured information will be more challenging to automate early. Phil: I think that’s a distinction without a difference. We’ll eventually get to the point where the existential question becomes, how much of the building industry across all three silos will society accept as producing a routinized thing? Because when I can look at 900 hospital models and extract 85 percent of the best decisions, I need an architect to do something else.
Jesse Devitte
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Martha: As with the Industrial Revolution, the AI revolution is here. We accept it. I don’t think it is a bad thing. I think it is an opportunity to do things above and beyond what we’ve been doing. Stacy: Once automation starts to complement a better understanding of business, you get leaner. The shape of your activities changes dramatically. At some point you have to go from digital to physical, and luckily that’s our side of the fence. Rob: Given that A, E and C will adopt AI differently and at difference paces, how long before, say, 50 percent of what we currently do is automated? Stephen: I don’t know if I can put percentages or times to that. The change is going to come faster than it ever has before. We had 20 years to absorb BIM, for the draftsman to either adapt or find something different to do. We don’t have that time with AI, and that’s why the existential conversation is so prescient. The rate at which we will have to adopt it will be faster than we can comprehend right now. It’s scary for people. That’s why we need to begin to deal with these issues.
Phil Bernstein
Phil: The book Only Humans Need Apply explores what happens sociologically when large swaths of society’s work are automated. There are only so many rocket-scientist jobs available, and at some point there won’t be enough work for everyone to do. Right now, I’ve got 300 graduate students who are going to have to be working, and 70 new ones each year. Is that sustainable?
Josh: That was the upshot of a McKinsey report* from last year. There are things that resist automation because of a lack of predictability and repetition, like trimming tree limbs around your house or home healthcare. And the market still serves as a damping mechanism to change in many places. Thornton Tomasetti might be 50 percent automated in five years, but a less technically advanced engineer might take 10 or 15. Phil: If I said to your management committee, “In three to five years, you will not need 40 percent of your staff doing what they do now. You can repurpose 10 percent of them,” what are you going to do? You’re going to be 30 percent smaller, doing the same amount of work.
Rob: Have you seen any companies trying to capture the data of all new or existing building stock? CASE** used to have a saying: “Buildings equal data.” Do you think there needs to be a universal way that building data from new and existing buildings can be required from a city standpoint? It would be unbelievable if engineers and architects had to distribute all this data. Stephen: That would be like asking every fund manager to release their portfolio, as well as how they trade. It’s the secret sauce.
Stacy: Technology shifting jobs is an old notion. The industrial and internet revolutions did eliminate some jobs. But in total, roles evolved and the nature of work advanced alongside these evolutions. Stephen: I don’t think AI is going to replace our ability to negotiate with communities and various stakeholders. I don’t think AI will replace – at least, in our lifetimes – the ability to triangulate all the complicated factors that go into making a successful project. Phil: Are you willing to do it with 40 percent fewer people? If you look at the demographics of the American architecture profession during the recession, it contracted by about 30 percent. Revenues went way down. By 2015, net revenues of American architects were back up to prerecession levels. Yet 15 percent fewer people are working in American architecture now. And why is that? It’s BIM. It’s the only thing that changed. Stephen: Absolutely – we’ll do it with fewer people. We are doing it with fewer people today. We’re building more
*” A Future That Works: Automation, Employment, and Productivity,” January 2017, McKinsey Global Institute.
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square feet every year than we ever could have 15 years ago, thanks to the technologies that you’re talking about.
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Josh Emig
Josh: You could probably mandate the release of a subset. One of the big data stories from a few years ago was how New York City changed its approach to code enforcement and other things because of the analysis of information that had been digitized from routinely required forms and filings. There is still a lot of “dark data” out there that is not captured, aggregated and analyzed. But forget about mandating submission of anything proprietary. Martha: I can envision apps that will soon be able to capture that. They already do; we just don’t know it. For example, what is Citymapper doing? It records everything I do and when I do it, and generates revenue by selling that. I find the app useful, so I accept that my data is going to be used in such a way. I believe this is going to happen in the built environment too.
** A consulting firm co-founded by David Fano, Federico Negro and Steven Sanderson, which joined WeWork in 2015.
Rob: To deal with this change, do we in AEC have enough entrepreneurs, or are we mostly craftsmen?
Martha Tsigkari
Stacy: We’ve all opted in. Google has access to every Android phone’s GPS location and every Google Maps user’s “start-stop” mode of transportation. They can pull that up in real time, and that data is unbelievably valuable. From a developer’s standpoint, where are the bottlenecks in traffic where people start and stop? Where do they want to be? These questions can be easily answered by access to this level of “private” data. If I were advising my college self today about an AEC career, I would say, “Coursera the hell out of data science.” Whatever career I might pick, it would have to be augmented with data science. Stephen: I would argue the other way. You need to remain focused on the big-picture issues and needs of society. You can be a technician with all the computer science you might ever need, but you’re still a technician who has to adapt continuously. The constant is that we’ll still be trying to address these societal needs. To me, as an architect, that’s the value we need to provide. Phil: The tipping point may be a tip into an age of more rationality, especially for architects. In the 1980s, I was trained as an architect to elevate my intuition and judgment so that I could synthesize a complex, ambiguous, wicked problem, largely unencumbered by the facts. And we’re moving quickly into an age where an enormous amount of information, analysis, inductive reasoning and historical data is going to be available. The building industry has to move into a rational frame and away from privileging the nonrational over everything else.
Stacy: If you don’t enable entrepreneurialism, you won’t have the workforce to reduce by 40 percent. There’s something about the generations that are coming, the millennials and the Gen Zs behind them – they are decidedly more entrepreneurial.
Stacy Scopano
Phil: Where I’m teaching, there is a surge in the number of people who want to do joint degrees: MBA and M.Arch. They want to be in the entrepreneurial environment of the business school, and they’re not getting enough of that in architecture school. Martha: The entrepreneurship model that works in the technology industry does not work in the AEC industry because so much is based on legacy.
In an entrepreneurship, you trust somebody who’s very young and give them a lot of money to develop a start-up. I can’t think of an architecture firm that would give a 25-year-old a lot of money to go build an architectural practice. Josh: Attitudes about entrepreneurship can be taught. One of the most successful projects I’ve given students was in a joint architecture-construction program. The project was to design a business for AEC. These kids started to think about what problems needed to be solved and how to generate a value proposition and identify market opportunities. It made them feel empowered: “Oh, I actually have something to say about this industry or about how people do this business.” How we should therefore prepare for increased computation and automation is a people answer, not a technology answer. We need to spend less time hand-wringing about how technology changes our current process. Instead, we need to empower all these people to learn and take advantage of the technology as active producers, not just as passive recipients. To read the full discussion, go to ThorntonTomasetti.com/ How_Far_Can_Automation_Go.
“ We had 20 years to absorb BIM, for the draftsman to either adapt or find something different to do. We don’t have that time with AI, and that’s why the existential conversation is so prescient.” Stephen Van Dyck LMN Architects
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“ At The Shed, the site, program, mission and formal goals together presented a challenge to extreme automation. The mind – and hand – of the design thinker had to continually engage throughout the process.”
van Tribus E Senior Associate Rockwell Group
“ Look and feel are important. Software lets you run options and pull out metrics, but that isn’t everything. Every option has to work, but the ultimate decisions are made with something that’s a lot less tangible and more human.”
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Scott Lomax Principal Thornton Tomasetti
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THROWING OUT THE COOKBOOK
“ Yes, there’s a lot of math involved. But what you really need is imagination – a balance of fantasy and artistry that allows you to envision what the space can be. An automated process can’t do that.”
Matt Ostrow Associate Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Thornton Tomasetti/Bess Adler
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n discussing the future of the AEC industry – and of engineering, in particular – predictions of rapid automation are now common. Engineering design, the argument goes, is based on a set of routines and codes: a “cookbook” that can be applied to any project. This argument oversimplifies what engineers do. On projects of any complexity (which is most of them), routines and codes are not “recipes” for the job; they are techniques and tools selected by an engineer to craft unique design solutions. One project that clearly illustrates this creativity is The Shed. A new cultural institution taking final shape within Manhattan’s Hudson Yards development, The Shed has been designed to be “future-proof,” with an unprecedented flexibility to accommodate all forms of cultural expression – past, present and future. Architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rockwell Group eschewed preconceived notions to reimagine what a cultural facility could be. There was no template for how it should look or function. Everything was designed to embody a new vision. There was no cookbook for The Shed. The eight-million-pound structure moves along heavy rails on six-foot wheels. 2017/2018 THORNTON TOMASETTI ANNUAL REPORT
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WHAT IS THE SHED? The Shed (TheShed.org) is an arts center dedicated to commissioning, producing and presenting all types of performing arts, visual arts and popular culture. It will bring together artists from all art forms under one roof and promote transformative collaboration between disciplines. The Shed consists of an eight-level, 115,300-square-foot base building and a telescoping outer shell. The base building houses large, column-free galleries, a black-box theater, event and rehearsal space, and a studio lab for early-career local artists. When more space is needed, the outer shell can be deployed over a plaza to define a 17,000-square-foot space. Operable door and wall elements allow the space to be an open-air pavilion or a fully enclosed, climate-controlled hall that integrates with the base building. The shell’s exposed-steel diagrid frame is clad in translucent ETFE, a strong, lightweight material that is more energy efficient and less costly than glass. Rolling out 115 feet at its fullest extent, the shell can be fully deployed in just five minutes. WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL? The Shed is really two separate projects – the base building and the shell – that must interact seamlessly. Each alone would be an accomplishment, built as they are atop a platform spanning active railyards and with the complex demands typical of performing arts venues. But coordinating the two components and balancing so many variables within tight structural tolerances increased the number of engineering challenges exponentially. The Shed’s status as a world-class cultural institution devoted to flexible programming and innovation required a home unlike any other building. Every aspect of its form was driven by functional and aesthetic goals. The need for dozens of different configurations to accommodate all forms of cultural expression – including those not yet invented – dictated the inclusion of several operable façade and roof elements. And the shell is a sculptural object in itself. The project was an ambitious exercise in radical performance-based design that only a team of imaginative and fearless designers could bring into being. IMAGINATION AND COLLABORATION Thornton Tomasetti joined the design team early on to help the architects explore and validate various design directions. Our integrated expertise in structural engineering, kinetics, façade consulting, sustainability and construction engineering provided the team with wide-ranging information and insight. It was clear that standard project delivery wasn’t right for The Shed. We advocated a design-assist process, whereby contractors and fabricators were brought in early – after a
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rigorous prequalification process – to provide input on what was practical or, indeed, possible. Sciame Construction and Cimolai S.p.A. became invaluable partners in the process. The Shed’s design involved myriad decisions, each demanding consideration of several options and trade-offs among competing priorities. But two features of the movable shell’s design, the propulsion mechanism and the exterior steel framing, illustrate the advantages of creative people collaborating in service of a common goal. MOVING THE DESIGN FORWARD Figuring out how to make an eight-million-pound structure move isn’t simple. Doing it without breaking the bank – and economy was important for the donor-supported effort – raised the stakes. The team considered everything from rope drives to mag-lev technology, but in the end, a rail-and-bogie system best met the demands of form, function, reliability and cost. The entire shell rests on just six points: four single-axle and two double-axle steel bogies. A total of 16 custom-fabricated six-foot wheels – likely the largest ever made – roll along huge rails. Luck played a role, too: the heavy rails needed for the design are rolled by the manufacturer only every six years, and that timing happened to work for The Shed’s construction schedule. The scale of the wheels and the loads involved pushed the design beyond technical norms; standard codes and guidelines no longer applied. Our engineers scrutinized relevant codes to fully understand their intentions and then extrapolated to design a safe and functional system. This propulsion design served as a solid foundation for the shell’s final design. The moment of truth came much later. In the summer of 2017, with the primary structure complete, it was time to test the propulsion system: The Shed moved exactly as planned.
“ A computer could design an efficient steel system for the job. Could it come up with a design that balanced function with the artistic form we needed? No.”
Eli Gottlieb Senior Principal Thornton Tomasetti
The physical mock-ups, along with digital models, clearly articulated the details that were essential to the design, keeping them intact throughout the processes of simplification and standardization that occur during fabrication and construction. A MOVABLE FEAST The Shed is an achievement more than 10 years in the making. When it opens in spring 2019, it will be a testament to the vision of many people: Liz Diller and David Rockwell, the architects who first proposed the concept of a “convertible” arts building; Alex Poots, The Shed’s founding artistic director and CEO, the Related Companies’ Hudson Yards development team; forward-thinking city officials; and dedicated donors. It is a building for the future. And yet the process of its creation defies many predictions about the future of the AEC industry. We can imagine computer programs designing simple structures: houses, strip malls and standard low-rise office blocks. But the trend toward mixed-use development, with a corresponding need for creative solutions that balance the competing demands of such projects, will defy easy automation. And the age-old human hunger for ingenuity, playfulness and art in the built environment will persist. The “cookbook” approach won’t be enough to make this feast a reality.
Thornton Tomasetti/Lorenzo Sanjuan
SCULPTURAL STEEL: AN ART OBJECT LESSON The design of the shell’s frame was critical to the project in many ways: it had to be light enough to meet the constraints of the site (atop a platform); it had to integrate with the railand-bogey propulsion system; it had to accommodate all the mechanical systems required to fully condition the interior space when deployed; and above all, it had to be beautiful. The Shed’s form would be an artistic statement supporting its overall mission. Our multidisciplinary team – of structural and façade engineers, kinetic specialists and construction engineering experts – used cutting-edge tools to evaluate and coordinate options. Without parametric design technology, the optimal solution may not have been found. The architecture was not the result of computer analysis, but of human judgment and artistic instinct. As The Shed’s design team refined the most promising option, an elegant, sloping diagrid of delicate-looking steel, they did something unusual. They set out to identify particular elements – a slope or curve here, a dimension or connection there – as most important to the overall effect. Then they built physical models, including a nearly full-scale mock-up of part of the exterior, to convey these details to everyone involved in the project.
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ately, change seems to be happening faster than anyone can keep up with it. In our industry alone, change has shifted, in a few short years, from gradual to rapid – to sometimes sudden and disruptive. In this report, we asked how AEC companies can thrive in this environment, where technology seems poised to replace people in the workforce and where outside firms are making inroads into our industry. We talked with change agents in the AEC industry and beyond, and discovered a few recurring themes that point to how we can steer our careers and companies to stay ahead of the game: Embrace change as a source of opportunity, rather than viewing it as a threat
Become drivers of change, not just reactors to it
Strive to be sustainable
Cultivate diversity and inclusion
Adopt new and more proactive business models
Diversify our services
Collaborate – both inside and outside the AEC industry
Perhaps most importantly, we can preserve the human element in our work by focusing on what business and technology experts Thomas Davenport and Julia Kirby describe as the “the promise of augmentation – in which humans and computers combine their strengths to achieve more favorable outcomes than either could do alone.”* Many projects will continue to require a combination of imagination and skill that machines can’t match. If we focus on the individuality and creativity that make us uniquely human, machines can take on a fitting new role, as intelligent tools for the advancement of our – human – ingenuity. * Thomas Davenport and Julia Kirby, Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines
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BUILDING FOUNDATIONS FOR INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY
“ Inclusion is personal. It’s not about people being ‘OK’ with who you are; it’s about the real you belonging here.”
Mark J. Tamaro Senior Principal and Washington, D.C. Office Director
MISSION: To become a driver of change and innovation, we are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse culture in which all our people can realize their full potential.
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ver the past year, our (I+D)2 committee, launched in 2016, made solid progress toward embedding inclusion and diversity into the firm’s culture and processes, and developed a roadmap that sets out incremental actions, goals and benchmarks through 2020. We implemented a new HR management tool to help us more accurately collect, measure and monitor employee data. T4 (Thornton Tomasetti Talent Tool) replaced several siloed systems to integrate recruiting, hiring and onboarding; employee data; benefits management; staff development and education; benefits; and payroll. T4 provides a holistic picture of our workforce and the ability to track changes over time. 2017 also saw the release of our (I+D)2 mission statement and of Toolkit 1: Awareness, the first of several educational modules. By challenging employees through activities and discussions, the module raises awareness of unconscious biases in how we interact with one another. Board of directors members did it first, then led sessions for other senior executives, who brought the program to individual office directors. It rolled out to all staff in the first half of the year. In March 2018, we launched Toolkit 2: Integration, a module that teaches leaders how to align (I+D)2 ideals with our recruiting efforts. Topics include assembling a diverse candidate slate and recruiting panel, developing new recruiting channels, and creating inclusive communities for onboarding and full integration of new hires into the firm’s culture. The coming year will see the rollout of other new toolkits, refinements to the roadmap based on the data we gather from T4, and the development of more specific targets for hiring and staff retention.
AINE BRAZIL: AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE CHANGES DIRECTION At the close of 2017, Aine Brazil stepped down, as Thornton Tomasetti’s vice chairman and a full-time employee, after 35 years. A brilliant and creative structural engineer, she helped shape the skylines of New York, Philadelphia, Milan and Istanbul. Her passion and energy have inspired countless colleagues – but that won’t be her only legacy. The word retiring has never applied to Aine: she remains on the board of directors and will stay heavily involved with (I+D)2 – as well as Women@TT, a program that brings women together for mutual career advice and support, and our Communities of Practice initiative, which fosters knowledge sharing among employees. A driving force in their creation, Aine is eager to guide these programs toward maturity: “They are all in fairly early stages and need an advocate to keep them growing and thriving. So I’m not retiring, I’m changing focus.”
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PURPOSE & VALUES AWARDS
For the fourth year, we invited our 1,300 employees to nominate colleagues who best embody our purpose and values. We’re pleased to celebrate the recipients by sharing brief bios and excerpts from their letters of nomination.
Purpose
Value
Value
We embrace challenges to make lasting contributions.
We are passionate about what we do.
We see opportunity where others focus on risk.
Mike DeLashmit Vice President, Structural Engineering, New York
Carol Post Chief Quality Assurance Officer, Structural Engineering, Chicago
Dom Ponsades Senior Lead Researcher Business Development
Matt Olender Principal, Forensics Fort Lauderdale
During Mike’s 38-year career in engineering, construction and inspections, he has developed a mastery of many codes, best practices and local procedures.
Building on 20 years as a leader in the higher-education sector, Carol brings that expertise to her new role leading quality assurance.
Dom has played a key role in ensuring the quality of our financial data and is a master at mining project leads from online resources.
“Carol has focused her passion for organizational effectiveness into processes that result in better knowledge sharing, which leads to superior design services for our clients.”
“Right after the [2015] merger with Weidlinger, I started getting notes from Dom about project opportunities. I asked someone in Marketing who this guy was. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘That’s Dom. He’s always done that. He just loves making connections to find new business.’”
Matt started in our New York office and has led the Fort Lauderdale office since 2014. High-profile projects include collapse investigations at the World Trade Center, Miami Dade College parking garage and the Tropicana Casino garage, as well as demolition of 130 Liberty Street in New York.
“When you think of Mike, these descriptors come to mind: integrity, detail-oriented, cheerful, problem solver, organized, responsive, driven, helpful, humble, committed, highly skilled, mentor.”
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“Matt is an open, critical and independent thinker. He’s not the guy who says why something won’t work; he’s the one who says, ‘Why not?’”
Value
Value
We challenge people to grow.
Kaushik Dutta Associate Principal, Structural Engineering, Mumbai
We look beyond the obvious to solve the real problem.
Misam Imam Associate Principal, Structural Engineering, Mumbai
Kaushik and Misam started their Thornton Tomasetti careers in our New Jersey and New York offices, respectively, and relocated to India in 2010 to co-lead our Mumbai office. What started as a four-person operation is now more than 70 strong. “When we opened the Mumbai office, no one there knew Revit. Misam and Kaushik sent all new hires to a three-month training course and began internal education. Now we have a group of modelers with a reputation for quality and dedication.”
Duncan Cox Associate, Sustainability London
Nick Mundell Lead Computations Designer CORE studio, New York
Duncan leads the Sustainability practice in our London office.
Nick has been with CORE studio for six years, playing a lead role in training and on projects related to visualization, interoperability, automation and AI.
“Duncan’s expertise spans multiple areas: embodied carbon, daylighting and energy, just to name a few. He has been critical to developing embodied carbon capabilities at Thornton Tomasetti and is heavily involved in the Carbon Leadership Forum.”
“Nick is all about helping us be more productive by showing us how to work faster and with greater accuracy. He routinely writes custom scripts, usually under deadline pressure. He’s often helped us get a model to a client in one day, rather than the usual turnaround of one week.”
Many other deserving nominees from across the firm received the recognition of their colleagues: Ryan Anderson Michael Bauer Rodney Baxter Shaun Butcher Thomas Byrne Liling Cao Larry Castaneda Mark Chiu Gavin Colliar Matthew Cummins
Ross Cussen Kristopher Dane Abena Darden Geoff Dauksas Antonio De Luca Mark Dewey Paul Dineen Gwendolyn Dowdy Bill Dwyer Lee Earl
Sarah Fennema Alejandro Fernandez Florida High Climbers team Pierre Ghisbain Ostap Gladoun Jillian Goldstein Caridad Gonzalez Vamshi Gooje Amy Hattan
Steve Hofmeister Onur Ihtiyar Rose Ilardi Kevin Jackson Benjamin Kaan Alex Kelly Shawn Leary Claudia Mazzocchetti Peter McDonald Christopher Minerva
Michael Oakland Michael Roberts Joshua Rosenkrantz Lorenzo Sanjuan Tyler Schmidt Brian Shen Carolina Simoes Lynn N. Simon Sarina Singh Cheri Tarabocchia
JJ Tobolski Zachary Treece Mark Upton Heather Walters Linda Warren Christopher Wenderoth Eric Wheeler Melissa Wong (NY office) Mei (Sophie) Xue Sherry Yin
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THORNTON TOMASETTI FOUNDATION Board of Governors Richard L. Tomasetti, P.E., NAE, Hon. AIA Chairman Joel S. Weinstein, P.E. Vice Chairman Andrew Goldbaum, CPA Treasurer Elisabeth Malsch, Ph.D., P.E. Secretary Joseph G. Burns, S.E., P.E., CEng, FAIA, RIBA, LEED AP Raymond Daddazio, EngScD, P.E., F.EMI Wayne Stocks, P.E., LEED AP Activities Committee Rachel Jackson, S.E., LEED AP BD+C Amy Macdonald Peter Quigley, P.E., DBIA Foundation Administrator Gwendolyn Dowdy
In 2017, the Thornton Tomasetti Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, distributed $141,140 in scholarships and charitable contributions in support of its mission.
Since 2008, the foundation has disbursed over $950,000 in grants and scholarships to more than 30 organizations. See more at www.ThorntonTomasettiFoundation.org. Build Change: We contributed $20,000 to make schools safer, reduce injury risk from natural disasters and promote safe construction practices in Indonesia. The Urban Assembly: We gave $10,000 to help provide underserved students with the academic and life skills necessary for college and career success. Engineers Without Borders (EWB): We donated $8,000 to the University of Miami chapter’s construction of a bridge in Ranchito de los Peralta, Dominican Republic, that facilitates commerce and enables access to education. The University of Washington chapter used its $5,000 award to help build a covered community center in La Vega del Volcan, Guatemala. The Cooper Union: We donated $2,500 to the Refugee in Flight Shelter Kit program for student development of collapsible portable shelters for refugees.
A $5,000 award helped the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s EWB chapter build a bridge linking residents of El Aguacate, Guatemala, to schools, hospitals and markets.
Bridges to Prosperity: We contributed $10,000 each to the Rutgers University and Iowa University chapters. These grants aided construction of a suspended bridge in Shinahota, Bolivia, and restoration of a footbridge in Samulali, Nicaragua. The School of Architecture at Taliesin: Our $3,000 award helped fund the 2017 symposium “Refuge: Redefining Shelter.” Those Amazing Professions: Our $12,500 matching grant helped raise $25,000 to develop a website based on Those Amazing Engineers (www.thoseamazingprofessions. org), a booklet that introduces young readers to the engineering profession. New This Year: We launched a research program to promote public technical literacy, with a focus on extreme loading events, wind performance, risk, reliability and the engineering processes that form the foundation for all structures in our built environment.
Student Innovation Fellows Michael Aronson (Northwestern University) and Siwei Ma (Columbia University) each received $5,000 for research in seismic energy harvesting and 3D concrete printing.
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U.K. scholarship winner Crystal Mason (University of Sheffield) received £6,000.
2017/2018 THORNTON TOMASETTI ANNUAL REPORT
National scholarship winners Carlene Chow (University of California, Davis), Kathryn Eckhoff (Northwestern University) and Hayley Proctor (University of California, Berkeley) each received $10,000.
OUR PRACTICES
Forensics
Weidlinger Applied Science
Construction Engineering
Structural Engineering
We investigate engineering problems and provide evidence-based solutions founded on rigorous science and physics. We assist attorneys, property managers, building owners, contractors, manufacturers and design professionals with a wide range of engineering and architectural issues. Our multidisciplinary professionals help clients mitigate engineering issues of all kinds and work to prevent future problems. Decades of experience enable us to quickly generate hypotheses and evaluate them based on physical evidence, interviews and operational data.
We undertake research, development and design to engineer practical solutions that manage risks to life across a diverse range of military and civilian applications. We analyze and model everything from buildings, infrastructure and industrial facilities to vehicles, biomedical devices and novel engineered materials. We leverage a unique combination of technologies and expertise to solve complex problems. Military, government, corporate and academic clients value the validation of our software and the critical insights gained from correlating analysis with testing.
We help developers, contractors, designers, fabricators and erectors move projects efficiently and effectively from initial concept to final completion through early involvement in the design process. With backgrounds in structural design, construction management, procurement and construction engineering, our specialists have the expertise to fully integrate design and construction teams to maximize constructability.
We collaborate with architects, owners and builders to design elegant solutions for projects of all types, sizes and levels of complexity. From advanced structural analysis and optimization to performance-based design, and acoustics and vibration consulting, our engineers focus on meeting – and exceeding – client needs.
Renewal
Property Loss Consulting
We provide owners and managers with solutions to a wide range of structural, building systems and envelope issues in existing buildings of every use, age and construction type. Our multidisciplinary design and assessment services can meet a wide range of needs. We perform condition assessments, investigations, feasibility studies and peer reviews. We also design repairs, renovations and alterations and oversee their execution in the field.
Our architects, structural engineers and MEP experts provide investigation and analysis services to insurance clients worldwide on cases large and small, across a wide range of market sectors. Our work spans the spectrum of pre- and post-loss risks, damage and claims arising from natural or man-made perils.
Weidlinger Transportation We offer multidisciplinary engineering expertise – in structural, civil and geotechnical engineering – for new and existing bridges and other transportation infrastructure. Our broad expertise provides clients with creative solutions for a variety of transportation structures.
Protective Design We help architects, owners, developers and public agencies achieve security objectives while upholding each project’s aesthetic, functional and budgetary goals. A recognized leader in security services – with more than 50 years of experience – we collaborate with clients and project teams to develop physical, technical and operational security solutions for facilities of every type, use and size.
Sustainability Sustainability is essential to the way we design, build and operate our buildings. We collaborate with owners, architects and contractors to create high-performance, low-energy buildings that are comfortable and healthy at every stage of their life cycles. With more than 25 years in the green building industry, we continue to expand the boundaries of sustainable design.
Façade Engineering We provide comprehensive façade consulting services to architects, building owners and developers. Our suite of specialty analyses solves complex design challenges, improves constructability, maximizes energy efficiency and increases security. From material research and specialty analyses through detailed design, engineering and construction support to glass and façade failure investigations, our expert staff helps clients realize ambitious architectural visions.
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS & OFFICERS
Board of Directors
Practice Leaders
Regional Leaders
Corporate Services
Thomas Z. Scarangello, P.E. Chairman & CEO
Forensics John Abruzzo, P.E. Managing Principal
East U.S. Tod Rittenhouse, P.E. Managing Principal
Jim Dray Chief Information Officer
Renewal Gary P. Mancini, P.E. Managing Principal
Mid-Atlantic, South U.S. R. Wayne Stocks, P.E. Managing Principal
Weidlinger Applied Science Najib Abboud, Ph.D., P.E. Senior Principal
Midwest U.S. Faz Ehsan, Ph.D., P.E. Managing Principal
Raymond Daddazio, P.E. President Aine Brazil, P.E., NAE Vice Chairman Dennis C. K. Poon, P.E. Vice Chairman Joseph G. Burns, S.E., FAIA Managing Principal Bruce Gibbons, S.E., CEng Managing Principal W. Steven Hofmeister, P.E., S.E. Managing Principal Grant McCullagh GIBSCorp, LLC Gary F. Panariello, Ph.D., S.E. Managing Principal Tod Rittenhouse, P.E. Managing Principal Michael J. Squarzini, P.E. Managing Principal R. Wayne Stocks, P.E. Managing Principal Yi Zhu Managing Principal Robert P. DeScenza, P.E. Board Advisor Founding Principals Charles H. Thornton Ph.D., P.E., NAE, Hon. AIA
Property Loss Consulting Bruce K. Arita, AIA Senior Vice President Structural Engineering W. Steven Hofmeister, P.E., S.E. Managing Principal Construction Engineering Darren R. Hartman, P.E. Senior Principal Protective Design Peter DiMaggio, P.E., SECB Senior Principal Faรงade Engineering Sergio De Gaetano Dott. Ing., CEng Senior Principal Weidlinger Transportation Samuel Summerville, P.E. Senior Principal Sustainability Gunnar Hubbard, FAIA LEED Fellow Principal
Richard L. Tomasetti P.E., NAE, Hon. AIA Matthys P. Levy P.E., CEng, NAE, Hon. AIA
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2017/2018 THORNTON TOMASETTI ANNUAL REPORT
West U.S. Bruce Gibbons, S.E., CEng Managing Principal Pacific Rim Yi Zhu Managing Principal Europe Phillip Thompson, CPhys, MInstP Principal
Andrew Goldbaum, CPA Chief Operating Officer Amy Hattan, LEED GA Vice President of Corporate Sustainability Robert L. Honig, Esq. General Counsel Stephanie Kelly Chief Human Resources Officer Jim Kent Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Robert Otani, P.E. Chief Technology Officer Carol Post, P.E., S.E. Chief Quality Assurance Officer Rimma Zaleznik, MBA, CPA, PMP Chief Financial Officer
OFFICES
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Austin, Texas
Mississauga, Canada
Beijing, China
Moscow, Russia
Boston, Massachusetts
Mumbai, India
Bristol, England
New York, New York – Madison Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
New York, New York – Wall Street
Christchurch, New Zealand
Newark, New Jersey
Copenhagen, Denmark
Ottawa, Canada
Cupertino, California
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dallas, Texas
Phoenix, Arizona
Denver, Colorado
Portland, Maine
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
San Diego, California
Edinburgh, Scotland
San Francisco, California
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
São Paulo, Brazil
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Seattle, Washington
Hong Kong, China
Shanghai, China
Houston, Texas
Tampa, Florida
Kansas City, Missouri
Toronto, Canada
London, England – Farringdon
Washington, D.C.
London, England – Lloyd’s Avenue
Wellington, New Zealand
Los Angeles, California
West Hartford, Connecticut
Miami, Florida
Design by Barber Graphic Design Image credits: Inside front cover, page 6 and page 20 illustrations by Ryan Todd Page 13 illustration by James Yang Page 15 illustration by Peter Grundy Roundtable photos: Thornton Tomasetti/Bess Adler
Thornton Tomasetti optimizes the design and performance of structures, materials and systems for projects of every size and level of complexity. An employee-owned organization of engineers, scientists, architects and other professionals collaborating from offices worldwide, we support clients by drawing on the diverse expertise of our integrated practices. We are committed to being a sustainable and enduring organization and the global driver of innovation in our industry.
“ In discussing the future of the AEC industry – and of engineering, in particular – predictions of rapid automation are now common. Engineering design, the argument goes, is based on a set of routines and codes: a ‘cookbook’ that can be applied to any project. This argument oversimplifies what engineers do.” – page 25
www.ThorntonTomasetti.com