Stantec, a global leader in sustainable design and engineering, has signed an agreement to acquire Environmental Systems Design, Inc. (ESD), a 270-person engineering firm headquartered in Chicago. Founded in 1967, ESD has built a reputation for excellence and innovation in high-performance design with a roster of industry-leading clients. The terms of the transaction are not disclosed.
The acquisition of ESD significantly deepens Stantec’s expertise in mission critical facilities and data center design. Mission critical facilities represent a rapidly growing segment of purpose-built infrastructure that require an increased level of reliability. These facilities—spanning nearly every major industry—are designed to maintain building infrastructure, emergency dispatch, data storage, or other critical functions in the face of inclement weather and utility outages. Data centers, such as hyperscale facilities, require special, resilient design considerations developed by uniquely qualified teams with regular exposure to the evolving needs of large-scale companies.
The acquisition of ESD expands Stantec’s mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) and structural engineering practice by 40 percent in the US. These added resources significantly deepen the firm’s smart building engineering capabilities that support the workplace of the future and the emerging trends of decarbonization, building repositioning, and adaptive reuse.
“Merging talent with ESD positions Stantec as one of the top integrated design firms in the US market,” said Leonard Castro, executive vice president and business operating unit leader for Buildings at Stantec. “Our expanded services in data center, smart building design, and high-performance buildings will offer our clients the flexible and stable facilities that meet their operational needs into the future.”
“Stantec is a top-tier firm that shares our vision to improve society through the built environment,” said Raj Gupta, executive chairman at ESD. “ESD has increased the depth and breadth of its services in recent years. Joining Stantec expands our offering globally and creates exceptional career growth opportunities for our employees.”
Critical Project Experience
ESD provides data center design services for several industry-leading technology clients. ESD was recently retained by a confidential client to provide peer review and hyperscale data center design services and subsequently engaged in multiple hyperscale data centers on its behalf across the US. Hyperscale campus developments scale from a single 500,000 square foot (20 to 30 megawatts capacity) facility to multiple facilities spanning several million square feet (300+ megawatts capacity). Multiple sites throughout the country share a baseline design with local adaptations and are designed for efficient phased buildouts without interruption to live facilities.
Additional projects in ESD’s portfolio include
- MEP and mission critical engineering for the United Airlines Network Operations Center in Chicago, a vital component of the airline’s day-to-day operations. Building Information Modeling (BIM) was used to route new systems through the existing structure and around existing systems. ESD worked closely with the City of Chicago and provided specialized consulting services in the areas of electrical and fire alarm codes to provide a unique furniture wiring design that met all of United’s needs.
- MEP and fire protection engineering for the 1,400,000-square-foot expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center, one of the largest convention centers in the world. The new West Hall includes 600,000 square feet of flexible exhibition spaces with multiple infrastructure services including a variety of electrical power voltages and capacities, telecommunications, water and drainage, and natural gas. Ancillary program and support spaces include a concourse, meeting rooms, lobbies, and café/kitchen space.
- MEP and fire protection engineering and energy modeling for Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital in Illinois. The 201-bed hospital was designed to meet future demand and modeled to achieve LEED Silver Certification. Energy conservation measures included optimizing the thermal performance of the façade while balancing the solar heat gain of the glass, external shading techniques, LED lighting, and more. ESD also reduced water-fixture use by 20 percent and domestic hot water usage by 26 percent.
Stantec has three existing offices in Chicago, for a total of five in Illinois. With a large concentration of employees in Chicago, ESD also has offices in New York City, San Francisco, and Phoenix. The acquisition will grow Stantec’s presence in Chicago to nearly 600 and to more than 2,050 in the broader US North Central region, which covers 12 states.
The acquisition is expected to close on June 30, 2023.
Related Stories
| Mar 11, 2011
Chicago office building will serve tenants and historic church
The Alter Group is partnering with White Oak Realty Partners to develop a 490,000-sf high-performance office building in Chicago’s West Loop. The tower will be located on land owned by Old St. Patrick’s Church (a neighborhood landmark that survived the Chicago Fire of 1871) that’s currently being used as a parking lot.
| Mar 11, 2011
Community sports center in Nashville features NCAA-grade training facility
A multisport community facility in Nashville featuring a training facility that will meet NCAA Division I standards is being constructed by St. Louis-based Clayco and Chicago-based Pinnacle.
| Mar 10, 2011
Steel Joists Clean Up a Car Wash’s Carbon Footprint
Open-web bowstring trusses and steel joists give a Utah car wash architectural interest, reduce its construction costs, and help green a building type with a reputation for being wasteful.
| Mar 10, 2011
How AEC Professionals Are Using Social Media
You like LinkedIn. You’re not too sure about blogs. For many AEC professionals, it’s still wait-and-see when it comes to social media.
| Mar 2, 2011
Design professionals grow leery of green promises
Legal claims over sustainability promises vs. performance of certified green buildings are beginning to mount—and so are warnings to A/E/P and environmental consulting firms, according to a ZweigWhite report.
| Mar 2, 2011
New ASHRAE standard may be too broad for the Canadian market
New Standard 189.1 from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), which goes beyond energy efficiency to include provisions that affect construction, post-occupancy monitoring, and site control, may be too much for the Canadian market—at least for now.
| Mar 2, 2011
How skyscrapers can save the city
Besides making cities more affordable and architecturally interesting, tall buildings are greener than sprawl, and they foster social capital and creativity. Yet some urban planners and preservationists seem to have a misplaced fear of heights that yields damaging restrictions on how tall a building can be. From New York to Paris to Mumbai, there’s a powerful case for building up, not out.
| Feb 24, 2011
New reports chart path to net-zero-energy commercial buildings
Two new reports from the Zero Energy Commercial Buildings Consortium (CBC) on achieving net-zero-energy use in commercial buildings say that high levels of energy efficiency are the first, largest, and most important step on the way to net-zero.
| Feb 24, 2011
Lending revives stalled projects
An influx of fresh capital into U.S. commercial real estate is bringing some long-stalled development projects back to life and launching new construction of apartments, office buildings and shopping centers, according to a Wall Street Journal article.
| Feb 23, 2011
London 2012: What Olympic Park looks like today
London 2012 released a series of aerial images that show progress at Olympic Park, including a completed roof on the stadium (where seats are already installed), tile work at the aquatic centre, and structural work complete on more than a quarter of residential projects at Olympic Village.
