News

More fun than a barrel of monkeys: KidZooU opens

On April 13 the Philadelphia Zoo—America’s first zoo—opened KidZooU: Hamilton Family Children’s Zoo & Faris Family Education Center. The Zoo’s largest construction project to date, KidZooU is a year-round destination with a multitude of indoor and outdoor experiences for animals and guests alike. Designed to LEED Silver standards, it occupies a 2.5-acre site and repurposes the former Pachyderm House with interactive exhibits, conservation stations and robust programming aimed at teaching toddlers to tweens how to become stewards of wildlife and the environment. Click here for more information. Note: Images in composite graphic courtesy of The Philadelphia Zoo and SMP Architects

New building at Stroud Water Research certified LEED Platinum

Stroud’s new Moorhead Environmental Complex, designed to exemplify green design, has received the highest level of LEED certification. It is the third LEED Platinum building for which BBA was the MEP systems designer. The others are the Horticultural Center at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and Sidwell Friends Middle School in Washington, D.C. Read more about Stroud’s achievement here.

Edgar N. Putman Event Pavilion wins AIA Philadelphia Gold Medal for Design Excellence

The Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded the Edgar N. Putman Event Pavilion at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with its highest honor, a Gold Medal for Design Excellence. Read more about it here.

Promotions

BBA has promoted Charles S. Argue, Jr., P.E., lead mechanical engineer, and George D. Swisher, P.E., lead electrical engineer, to senior associates. Scott A. Frenck, P.E., Joseph P. Matje, P.E.—both senior mechanical engineers—and Dorothy J. Verdon, CPSM, director of marketing and business development, have been promoted to associates.