Sheehan Nagle Hartray Architects: A Woolpert Company

One of the best nights of the year: our annual boat cruise. Thank you to everyone who joined in on the fun and took in the views—and helped us kick off another amazing summer here in Chicago.

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Summer's almost here, but we had one more spring social event up our sleeve! Last night, our team headed to Trickery Chicago for a private magic show.

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After a hard battle in high winds and frigid sand, our volleyball team is off to a 1 and 0 start. Looking forward to another great season!

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Thank you, United Way of Metro Chicago for helping us host a wonderful event last night—and all of our volunteers for spending the evening with us!

Together, we were able to pack over 600 hygiene kits for United Way of Metro Chicago and its agency partners throughout the city.

You can learn more about United Way of Metro Chicago's mission, including its Regional Recovery and Neighborhood Networks initiatives, and ways that you can get involved here: https://liveunitedchicago.org/

SNHA's Chheng Lim, Zoe Cloonan, and Lou Wright led the pertinent and thoughtful presentation "Bigger. Denser. Faster. Greener." at this year's Data Center World AFCOM conference in Washington, D.C. During this session, the team revealed growing commonalities across the data center industry that can unlock a more streamlined, collaborative approach to development and a more expansive view of what's possible.

"With rapidly evolving density needs and the corresponding evolution of building systems, a rise in super-sized designs, and increasingly blurred lines between hyperscalers and wholesale, companies that systematize their approach to architecture and design stand to make great advances. The key is to develop solutions that consider all scales of development—program, site, building, data hall—and integrate those scales into a bigger, denser, faster, greener data center industry."

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Sheehan Nagle Hartray Architects: A Woolpert Company was named Designer of the Year at this year's QTS Data Centers Partner and Innovation Summit.

Congratulations to the entire design team and thank you to QTS and our project partners for years of successful collaboration.

Today is National Intern Day and we just happen to have some of the best. This summer, architecture interns Christopher Garcia, Meghan Ceccardi, Julia Nawa, and Natalia Ptaszek joined our Chicago office for hands-on project experience and a dive into data center design.

We are grateful for all of their hard work this summer and can't wait to see what they accomplish next!

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A beautiful evening taking advantage of the City of Chicago's Summer Music Series in Millennium Park.

Our team knows how to throw a picnic!

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"In the ten years since joining SNHA, Jorge has become a respected team leader, able to anticipate challenges and utilize the unique strengths of his team to achieve a successful outcome for both the client and firm," said SNHA Principal Timothy Connor. "We congratulate Jorge on this new role and look forward to his continued leadership.”

Please join us on congratulating Jorge Torres Maestro on his new role as Associate Principal for SNHA, a Woolpert Company!

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Please join us in congratulating Ola Johnston on her promotion to Associate Director!

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Yesterday, our Chicago team took on the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge 5K. We could not have asked for a better day or city to spend it in!

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“The goal was to create a design where the existing furniture seamlessly blended in with the new surroundings, and I’m happy to say we achieved that,” Woolpert Architect Magda Hebal said. “It’s the same furniture, yet the entire library looks so new and refreshed.

Woolpert Celebrates Grand Opening of Renovated Lisle Library District in Chicago Suburbs - Woolpert The renovation is designed to increase accessibility and functionality for visitors and staff at the nearly 60-year-old library.

When Chicago spring is still feeling like winter, we head to The Palms! Thank you to everyone who came down to shuffle at our first staff social outing of the year at The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club Chicago.

We are so proud to have Dominick Gallegos and Marcos Mercado representing SNHA in the City of Chicago – Government Coming Home Initiative, a design competition and wealth building initiative supporting “missing middle density” infill housing across the South and West Sides. You can visit the Chicago Architecture Center to view each of the entries on display, including Dominick and Marcos' reimagining of the Chicago six-flat, now until March 26.

The public is also invited to comment on their favorite submissions here: https://www.architecture.org/exhibits/exhibit/come-home-missing-middle-infill-housing/

606 Flat
"Chicago’s neighborhoods often feature buildings with strict setbacks and a focus on maximizing building footprint, resulting in long, narrow plans with limited access to daylight and views. While this issue has not significantly affected the urban fabric on the south and west sides, the 606-flat seeks to address it by treating both the front and back edges of the building as equal opportunities for activation. This approach connects residents with natural light and views and places core spaces on the lot’s center and side yards. Community art adorns the building facade, serving as a symbol of community involvement and a recognizable landmark. An “at grade porch” creates a transitional zone between public and private spaces while remaining accessible for those with disabilities. By prioritizing transparency in the architectural design, the building aims to meet intangible human needs such as security and a sense of belonging, fostering connections among residents. The alleyways around the building also offer potential as public spaces and thoroughfares."

"Desserts are ready in the kitchen": A Love Story

Happy Valentines Day!

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Designers by day, skaters (trying our best not to fall) by night. SNHA takes on the Maggie Daley Park Ice Skating Ribbon!

It's never lost on us how lucky we are to have the best of the city right outside our One Two Pru office.

Maggie Daley Park

As part of the City of Chicago's Come Home Initiative, a design competition and wealth building initiative supporting “missing middle density” infill housing across six focus communities on the South and West Side, the Chicago Architecture Center has invited architects to reimagine Chicago’s single family home, two- and three-flat, rowhouse and six-flat typologies to prioritize affordability, construction efficiency and 21st century lifestyles.

The initiative, part of the community development effort INVEST South/West, aims to reverse decades of disinvestment and depopulation and transform the urban fabric of Chicago’s South and West Side neighborhoods.

We are proud to have Dominick Gallegos and Marcos Mercado representing SNHA in this initiative for our city. The next and final phase of the competition will conclude with an exhibition open to the public beginning Friday, March 3 at the Chicago Architecture Center. Construction starts on the case study buildings is estimated to commence later this year.

You can learn more about the Come Home Initiative here:

INVEST SOUTH/WEST COME HOME INITIATIVE In cooperation with the City of Chicago, the Chicago Architecture Center is excited to announce the Come Home Initiative, part of Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot’s signature community development effort, INVEST South/West, which aims to reverse decades of disinvestment and depopulation and transform the u...

“Data center design, as a building typology, presents a distinctive vision of both human and machine, whose architectural language not only is inherently complex and technical, but also fundamentally simple and beautiful. It reveals, not unlike the electrification of the last century, a shift in how one lives and moves through the world, often traversing beyond the physical landscape to an interconnected, global world.

“Design, for me, means care. It should be evident when you look at a project delivered from our office that we took care with every part of it, nothing happened accidentally. For us, it’s about efficiency and economy and beauty.””

SNHA Principal Neil Sheehan spoke with Great Lakes By Design about the swift emergence and steadily rising demand of data centers, particularly hyperscale data centers, and the responsibility architects share in designing more sustainable, higher-performing, and engaging buildings for both the technology and people that use them—and the world that relies on them.

You can read the full article, “Powered by design,” in Volume 6, Issue 6 of Great Lakes By Design Magazine out now: https://greatlakesbydesign.com/product/great-lakes-by-design-magazine-architectonics-volume-6-issue-6/



https://www.snh-a.com/news/powered-by-design-the-mission-critical-building-typology-reshaping-the-future-neil-sheehan-featured-in-great-lakes-by-design-magazine/

“Powered by design: the mission critical building typology reshaping the future.” Neil Sheehan featured in Great Lakes by Design Magazine “Data center design, as a building typology, presents a distinctive vision of both human and machine, whose architectural language not only is inherently complex and technical, but also fundamentally simple and beautiful. It reveals, not unlike the electrification of the last century, a shift in h...

Together again. Happy Holidays from SNHA!

We're kicking off the holidays here at SNHA. Our annual cookie swap and orange elephant gift exchange were sweeter—and more creative—than ever.

Thank you to all who were able to participate in this year's festivities!

A tradition we look forward to all year: SNHA's annual Thanksgiving feast, made possible by our very own team of talented cooks and bakers and enjoyed by all.

We are especially grateful this year for the ability to share more time together with coworkers, friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving from SNHA!

For the second year in a row, we're proud to announce that SNHA has ranked #3 on Building Design+Construction's list of the Top 30 Data Center Architecture Firms in the U.S.

View the full list here: https://www.bdcnetwork.com/top-30-data-center-architecture-ae-firms-2022

Top 30 Data Center Architecture + AE Firms for 2022 HDR, Corgan, Sheehan Nagle Hartray Architects, and Gensler top the ranking of the nation's largest data center architecture and architecture/engineering (AE) firms for 2022, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.

"The growth of data centers mirrors the growth of the internet."

Tune in at 18:55 as SNHA Associate Chheng Lim discusses with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation the demand and capabilities of today's data center facilities — and the pressing need for greener, more efficient cooling systems along with Head of Critical Infrastructure Simon Harris of Business Critical Solutions.

Listen to the recent episode from CBC Radio: Spark with Nora Young here: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-55-spark/clip/15946764-557-data-centres-climate-crisis

557: Data centres in a time of climate crisis | Spark with Nora Young | Live Radio | CBC Listen When it comes to adapting to climate change, we tend not to think about the energy demands of our digital technologies. But data centres – the physical structures that store and process our digital information – are very resource-intensive and vulnerable to extreme weather events. Host Nora Youn...

Our team is heading to San Francisco for the annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo! We hope to see you there.

Happy Halloween from the SNHA team 🎃

It was a pleasure welcoming the University of Illinois Chicago chapter of American Institute of Architecture Students - AIAS into our Chicago office this week for a studio tour! The future of architecture is in good hands.

Congratulations to our very own Jordan Lutren and Waylon Richmond for taking first place in Volume Zero's Extreme Habitat 2022 Architecture Competition with their design "The Hearth Observatory."

"For millennia our ancestors gathered around their campfires and homely hearths, whose crackling flames and radiating warmth gifted comfort and wonder. Its influence shaped our evolution, its links to human psychology and wellbeing run deep. The Hearth Observatory seeks to explore this relationship, between human and flame, in a natural setting at the extremes of habitation.

In a volcanic crater on Ambrym Island, cantilevering over the lava lake near its mountainous peak, sits The Hearth Observatory. This off-grid habitation lands on a minimal footprint and invites occupants to connect with Earth’s fiery heart, bubbling up from deep below. Responding to its surroundings, the structure’s enclosure consists of a ceramic heatshield and cooling thermosiphon system. This is tapped for passive energy, while mitigating extreme heat and allowing one to live freely in a location hostile to life. At one end, facing down into the burning maelstrom, a single oculus establishes a powerful and unique relationship: a comfortable interior space juxtaposing the extreme environment raging outside. Looking through this aperture, a molten vista dances, with waves of heat and light kissing one’s skin and painting the walls. The interaction is melodic, the observer entranced, echoing the hearths of our past."

You can view The Hearth Observatory and all of the competition's winning designs here: https://volumezerocompetitions.com/competitions/result/19

Volume Zero Competitions International Architecture & Design Competitions for a greater impact

Introducing Sheehan Nagle Hartray Architects: A Woolpert Company.

"Woolpert shares our drive for design excellence and understands that innovation is evolutionary, while providing services that complement our own. In addition, Woolpert’s geospatial and engineering capabilities underscore our expertise, allowing us to integrate emerging technologies like computational design, digital twins, reality capture, carbon tracking, and virtual and augmented reality.”

Read the full press release here:
https://woolpert.com/news/press-releases/woolpert-acquires-sheehan-nagle-hartray-architects-global-experts-in-mission-critical-design/

Woolpert Acquires Sheehan Nagle Hartray Architects, Global Experts in Mission Critical Design - Woolpert The firm is known for technically challenging projects that serve commercial, civic and education clients.