Texas 2010 design rank: No 26
Green rank: No. 12
Owners’ interest in greener buildings helped propel Houston-based structural and civil engineering firm Walter P Moore to the 12th Top Green Design Firm.
“An increasing percentage of our projects pursue registration with third-party rating systems,” says Dirk Kestner, LEED AP BD+C, senior associate, Walter P Moore in Austin. He sees this due to an increase in mandates for LEED-ratings and a desire to build responsibly with regard to the environment.
Kestner adds that more clients are interested in the broader environmental impacts of design choices, beyond securing LEED points. He offers as an example Life Cycle Assessment.
“Instead of evaluating materials by attributes such as regional or recycled content, materials are evaluated by the environmental impacts associated with their production,” Kestner says.
Founded in 1931, Walter P Moore employs more than 30 Texas-based LEED accredited professionals. It provided structural and civil engineering services for the recently completed the $82.5-million, 43,770-sq-ft George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics & Astronomy Building at Texas A&M University. The six-story laboratory and classroom project anticipates LEED-silver certification.
“On this project, Walter P Moore pursued an aggressive use of complementary cementitious materials to reduce the embodied energy of the primary structure, designed long-span framing to support an intensive green roof above the auditorium and developed elegant fa�ade support system for precast pilaster sunshades,” Kestner says.
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