$1 Billion Chattanooga Automotive Production Facility
Volkswagen AG
Projects > $1 Billion Chattanooga Automotive Production Facility
Volkswagen AG
Design Awards:
ACEC | Grand Award for Engineering Excellence | 2012
The Edison Awards | Green Award (Gold) | 2012
Department of Environment & Conservation | Tennessee Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award for Building Green | 2011
Having successfully performed design work for more than 50% of all greenfield automotive assembly plants built in the United States over the last 10 years, SSOE was well qualified to oversee architecture, engineering, and construction management services for Volkswagen’s new automotive production facility.
Volkswagen was also looking for a firm with a strong sustainability focus who would help the company execute its green initiatives.
Located on an 830-acre brownfield site, the production facility includes conventional steel framed buildings with concrete columns, roof structures with skylights, metal wall panels with windows, and a single-ply membrane roof. The plant has the capacity to produce 150,000 mid-sized vehicles annually. The primary manufacturing operations include weld, paint, and assembly. Other facilities on this site include outbound logistics, an extensive training center, media (utility) center, social hall with cafeteria, technical center, tank farm, recycling center, and fire station. SSOE provided environmental permitting, civil, architectural, structural, mechanical, fire protection, plumbing, electrical, fire alarm, access control, and security system design as well as construction management. SSOE’s expertise led to the first and only LEED® Platinum automotive assembly plant in the world. SSOE assisted with the preparation, submittal, and multiple agency approvals of the air permit in record time—2 weeks ahead of an aggressive 3-month schedule.
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We found ourselves in need of a more robust tool to enhance resource forecasting and staff assignment capabilities. Instead of waiting for the perfect tool, we’re building it. SSOE’s in-house technology team has developed and piloted a tool that aims to forecast optimal staff mix and duration for new projects against existing workload to better understand capacity and manage resources efficiently. Additionally, the tool will allow teams to identify gaps to optimal staff mix.
SSOE has developed a proof-of-concept to use an AI Agent to act as a Master Engineer and Architect trained in SSOE’s processes, best-known-methods, and trainings. Our data structure is being remodeled to enable better use of our proprietary knowledge to train the agent on the ‘SSOE way’.
We helped our client visualize and optimize façade design for occupant comfort—long before breaking ground through the use of the Autodesk Forma tool. It allows the designer to rapidly experiment with the building’s geometry and façade design to promote sustainability, prioritizing quality of spaces and comfort for end uses, especially in extreme climates (daylighting and microclimate analysis tools) at the project’s exact geographic location, using location-specific environmental data.
Discover how SSOE is using Autodesk Forma to improve sustainability outcomes for industrial projects: SSOE Group: Improving sustainability outcomes for industrial projects with Autodesk Forma.
Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) is SSOE’s enterprise-wide project delivery platform. We partner with the Autodesk Product team and have research access. Use of the AI Assistant allows our design teams, owners, and general contractors the ability to query the project specifications for quality, answers, and more rapid responses to RFIs, submittals, or issues.
SSOE is utilizing Microsoft Copilot to significantly enhance work efficiency and accuracy across various departments. Copilot is accessible to all staff after training. Key areas of application include using it as a writing assistant, for idea generation, document summarization and generation, research assistant, excel assistant, programming code assistant, language translations, product comparison and data analysis. Use of Copilot has become part of the everyday life of SSOE employees who have identified key ways it can help them become more efficient with their daily tasks as well as more accurate in their deliverables.
Today, 75% of SSOE employees are have taken the training and have access to Copilot, with a goal of 100% of employees using Copilot by October 1, 2025.
SSOE is actively piloting AI copilots that use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to streamline both design and development tasks, transforming how our teams interact with software and each other.
By integrating copilot engines into platforms like Revit and GitHub, we’re enabling users to prompt complex actions using simple, conversational commands. In Revit, this means automating tasks such as cleaning up parameter data, managing annotations and dimensions, and organizing sheets—without writing scripts. These automations can be shared across project teams, accelerating workflows and reducing manual effort.
Similarly, our internal Software Development Community is leveraging GitHub Copilot to expedite coding tasks. Developers can generate and refine code using NLP prompts, tapping into GitHub’s enterprise knowledge base to move faster from concept to implementation.
Together, these tools represent a shift from traditional, expert-driven scripting to intuitive, AI-assisted collaboration, unlocking new levels of efficiency and scalability across our projects.