AECOM Teams Up with Ellerbe Beckett to Create More Sustainable Building In The Middle East

AECOM,  a known global provider of technical and management support services, including many environmental projects, has now teamed up with the Ellerbe Beckett architectural firm, known for its environmentally designed building projects all over the world.

AECOM is a Fortune 500 country with more than 44,000 employees. It is in involved in more than 100 countries and had revenues of more than $6.1 billion as of end July, 2009. Current AECOM residential projects are located in the Caribbean, Hong Kong (3 projects), the US State of Texas, and in Australia. Hopefully the new partnership will impact all the Middle East waste.

Ellerbe Beckett, founded in 1909, is involved in a number of architectural projects that stress low energy usage and concern for the environment. Several of these projects are located in the Middle East, and include the Kingdom Centre (Burj Al-Manlaka) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that features a 311 meter, uniquely designed skyscraper, replete with a 100 meter long bridge and observation deck at its top. Other Ellerbe Beckett projects in the Middle East are located in Doha, Qatar, and in the UAE state of Dubai.

Environmental projects that AECOM is involved in include water resources projects, such as reservoirs, waste water recycling, water treatment facilities and water distribution and transmission.

The company is also involved in air quality projects that include air quality testing, engineering and analysis, emissions measurements and design for factories and power facilities, and the maintaining of a laboratory to measure toxins in the air. Other environmental projects include ecological consulting site selection and analysis for building projects, environmental planning  and ecosystem restoration, and finding sustainable solutions to their various commercial and residential projects.

AECOM is also involved in program management for the Saadiyat Island project in Abu Dhabi, also known as the “Island of Happiness”. Saadiyat Island was mentioned in a previous GP article, Can “green cities” like Masdar really translate in Abu Dhabi? .

By combining their global strengths, the two companies hope to further improve in creating and sustaining the world’s “built, natural and social environments”. In the area of social environments, a number of projects in the areas of health and educational facilities include the Mayo Clinic Gonda building in Rochester, Minn., University Hospital in Dubai Healthcare City and the Samsung Cancer Center, in Seoul  – the largest cancer center in Asia.

Let’s hope that by joining forces these two entities will help create a greater global environmental “platform” rather than just designing and building more recreation and waterfront residential and marina complexes, like Saadiyat Island and Al Reem Island appear to be.

Photos: www. aecom.com