Surveys -- Environmental Outlook 2004 -- Seattle DJC.COM

Arup

Specialty: A global company focused on sustainability and environmental management in the built environment
Principals: Gary Lawrence, Jonathan Markowitz, Sarah Nicholson, Brian Glover
Year founded: 2003 (Northwest office)
Local office: Seattle
2003 revenues: $90 million (North America)
Projected 2004 revenues: $100 million Arup’s Seattle office opened less than a year ago, but already it’s working on projects near and far. That’s the advantage of being a global company.

Lawrence

Experts from the company’s far-flung offices are advising the Seattle Art Museum on its expansion, while people from Seattle are working on projects outside the Northwest.

“Even though (locally) we are not growing much, the presence of Arup in the marketplace is,” said Gary Lawrence, Seattle office principal.

Sustainability is a cornerstone of Arup’s practice and it is Lawrence’s focus. Late last month, for instance, he traveled to Oregon where he’s on the master-planning team advising Portland metro officials on the smartest way to expand the urban growth area.

Farther south, at the University of California Santa Cruz, Lawrence is helping planners calculate the benefits of sustainable practices, such as reusing gray water.

“We are all going to have to get smarter on how we manage scarce energy and water supplies,” said Lawrence, who added Arup officials “think of sustainability as the most robust of all possible risk-management frameworks.”

The Seattle office is doing a lot of work in two areas: life-science buildings and museums.

Kaiser Permanente turned to Arup to help incorporate natural ventilation and light systems at hospitals in California.

In San Francisco, Arup is doing engineering work on the new California Academy of Sciences, which is seeking LEED platinum status. In Fresno, Calif., Arup’s a strategic adviser to the art museum, which is building cultural facilities with specialized indoor environmental issues.

Closer to home, Arup did the preliminary structural design and all of the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and information technology work on Seattle’s new Central Library.

“We’re very proud to have been part of that project,” said Lawrence. “It’s not a building that is going to get replicated.”