March 23, 2016

Miller Hull team picked to design living building for Georgia Tech

Image courtesy LAS and Miller Hull [enlarge]

Georgia Institute of Technology has picked Lord Aeck Sargent and The Miller Hull Partnership to design a living building for education and research on its Atlanta campus.

The Portland office of PAE Engineers is handling mechanical, electrical and plumbing services.

Construction is expected to begin next year and it will open in 2019.

Living buildings are designed to supply all their own energy and water.

The Kendeda Fund and Georgia Tech are partners on the project. Georgia Tech said in a press release the building is expected to be the most environmentally advanced education and research building in the Southeast.

The design team was picked after an “ideas competition.” Other shortlisted firms are Perkins + Will; and Collins Cooper Carusi/Eskew + Dumez + Ripple/Hellmuth + Bicknese.

Miller Hull is based in Seattle and designed the Bullitt Center here, which was the first commercial living building.

Lord Aeck Sargent has offices in Ann Arbor, Atlanta, Austin, Chapel Hill, Washington, D.C., and Lexington, Kentucky. It is designing two projects that are pursuing Living Building Challenge certification, according to the press release. The Georgia Tech project is being handled by the Atlanta office.

The Kendeda Fund is a philanthropic investor in civic and environmental programs in Atlanta. It focuses on social and ecological challenges at the local and national levels.

This conceptual image of the Georgia Tech building shows the roof structure with a PV array.