Columbia Receives Engineering Excellence Awards for Jerome L. Greene Science Center and Central Energy Plant at Manhattanville Campus
Columbia University has earned two Engineering Excellence Awards from the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC-NY) for the Jerome L. Greene Science Center and Central Energy Plant at Columbia’s Manhattanville campus.
The Jerome L. Greene Science Center was recognized with a Diamond Award – the highest award bestowed to a project by ACEC-NY – in the Building/Technology Systems category for its innovative, unique design and engineering systems, including the double-skin glass curtain wall designed to reduce noise and meet thermal requirements with a reduced demand on energy. The state-of-the-art building provides 450,000 square feet of space for the neuroscience researchers of the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.
The first phase of the Central Energy Plant, a facility that provides chilled water, high-pressure steam, and electricity for Columbia’s Manhattanville campus, won a Platinum Award in the category of energy, recognizing the design team for accommodating the complex infrastructure of the plant within an urban campus. The engineering solutions needed to address not only the immediate project parameters but to be readily expandable in support of the phased development of the site and to establish a design flexibility that could adapt to emerging demands and technologies, a challenge the team met by employing computer models, innovative chiller configurations and industrial-grade control and monitoring systems.
ACEC-NY will present the awards during the organization’s 50th annual Engineering Excellence Awards competition in April 2017, which honors projects from member firms for design achievements of superior skill and ingenuity. Projects are judged by a panel of industry experts on a rigorous set of criteria, including complexity, innovation and value to society.
Columbia has previously received Engineering Excellence Awards from ACEC-NY for the renovation of the Studebaker Building and the construction of the Jerome L. Greene Science Center at the Manhattanville campus.