SSOE is adding another new office location to its roster – number 16. This time it’s in the prestigious Research Triangle Park area of Durham, North Carolina. With 50 completed projects in the North Carolina area in the last five years and more underway, SSOE already has impacted the area’s economy. Under the leadership of Meredith Mayes, PE, SSOE will formalize its presence to better contribute to the growth of the Carolina region particularly in the pharmaceutical, education, biofuels, and science and technology sectors. “The wealth of intellectual and creative talent in the Triangle area and surrounding regions will be a tremendous asset to SSOE,” said Mayes. “Our focus on innovation and access to some of the most advanced design technology in the world will give SSOE’s new professionals uninhibited freedom to reach their goals and achieve success.” Mayes herself has more than 18 years of design/engineering experience, and an extensive pharmaceutical background, which includes work with multi-national companies such as Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis and Schering-Plough. SSOE recently signed a contract with the EPA to perform master planning services for various EPA facilities around the country, including the Durham area. Providing the EPA with space planning for future and existing laboratories, SSOE is helping the organization increase energy efficiency, improve security and make its facilities more environmentally friendly. Other local SSOE projects include biofuels and fuel cell technology work with Clemson University and the University of South Carolina. Continue Reading →

Master Planning vs. Strategic Master Facility Planning Perhaps no other industry has undergone as many recent fundamental changes as health care. Matched with advances in medical science and technology, are changes in the design, composition, and location of buildings. Historically, medical services were delivered either in hospitals or doctor’s offices. Now there is an array of building types – specialty group practices, community-based ambulatory care clinics, large research centers, small specialty hospitals, and even shopping mall locations and mobile units. And increasingly, large health systems own and operate these networks that reach across counties and states. What has triggered this geographic dispersion of facilities? Continue Reading →

With few exceptions, every medical and financial institution, governmental body, multi-location company, and educational facility of a substantial size considers data one of its most valuable assets. By extension, data centers, the places that house an organization’s high-speed, high-demand computers and communications equipment, top the list of mission critical spaces. The consequences of lost or damaged data or interruption of services can be catastrophic. Because of the absolute mechanical, electrical, and structural requirements of data centers, planning and designing them has become a specialty within the A/E industry – and one at which SSOE excels. The layout of the environment itself is subject to specific ways that servers can be racked, cabling can be run, and other equipment can be stored. To avoid the crisis of a malfunction, data centers must be highly controlled in terms of humidity, temperature, electrical power, flooding, fire, and physical security. Continue Reading →

In the last issue of Dimensions we introduced the characteristics of an “A-Team” supplier and focused on their ability to challenge assumptions. This is the second part of the series, in which we discuss the ability of a supplier to think creatively. Textbook solutions are fine for textbook projects. But if you need something out of the ordinary or if you’re looking for better-than-average results, an A-Team supplier will think creatively to help you accomplish your goals. Before offering creative perspectives, a supplier should dig deep to find out as much as possible about a project, even when the parameters seem straightforward. A client in the glass industry engaged SSOE to do preliminary work on a project where the solution was predetermined – build a new batch plant at a cost of millions of dollars. Continue Reading →

China’s explosive economic growth has fostered the development of an urban upper class whose new-found wealth has opened a significant market in luxury goods. But trend-savvy companies are recognizing another consumer group in China: an emerging middle class that presents opportunities and challenges. However you define the Chinese middle class — by income, occupation, or Western spending habits — the economics of China’s population will change dramatically in the coming decades: Continued growth will see the incomes of most Chinese citizens rising, with fewer people living in poverty. More people will move from rural areas to cities in search of higher paying jobs. As a result, experts predict that in 20 years the urban middle class in China will become one of the world’s largest consumer markets. Continue Reading →