If you’re attending the AIA Conference on Architecture in 2024, be sure to stop by our studio in Washington, D.C., for a tour during the event’s Open Studio Night. Visitors will experience our approach to creating an open, collaborative, and healthy workplace. The tour will highlight several of our studio’s latest projects, from new high-performing government facilities to our research in carbon-sequestering buildings and materials.
Projects planned for the tour include the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s new production facility, the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, the Fairfax County Justice Center, our latest prototypes for carbon-absorbing bio-materials and buildings, and an in-depth look at the design of our studio.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s (BEP) new manufacturing facility—designed and engineered by SOM—will mark a new era in the history of U.S. currency production. Nestled in the landscape of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, the 1.2-million-square-foot building will transform day-to-day life at the BEP, streamline the printing process, and significantly reduce the bureau’s carbon emissions.
The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, founded by the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1970, advances transportation innovation for the public good, and its new building furthers this critical mission. Conceived as a vertical campus, the 410,000-square-foot building brings the entirety of the Volpe Center under one roof, with laboratories, data centers, offices, and workplace amenities that were once spread across several structures. After five decades of operation within a fenced campus in Cambridge’s Kendall Square neighborhood, the Volpe Center is now finally part of the public realm, in a structure that just received an Award in Architecture from the AIA | DC Chapter Design Awards.
In Fairfax County, SOM planned a 20-year transformation of the judicial complex. The master plan laid the groundwork for expanding the existing courthouse and establishing a new judicial hub. Expanding on this plan, SOM designed the first phase: a new building that relocates critical courthouse functions. The design emphasizes the complex’s social, cultural, and environmental significance, and sets the stage for future phases of growth.
Our research into carbon sequestration, spearheaded by our Climate Action Group, was first unveiled in 2021 as Urban Sequoia™, a concept to design buildings that can be a solution to the climate crisis. The idea brings together different strands of sustainable design thinking and emerging technologies, including bio-materials, and applying them at the scale of a building. Our bio-material research—developed in partnership with Prometheus Materials—is a net-zero, algae-based alternative to cement-based concrete that can form the basis for carbon-negative buildings.
Our Washington, D.C., Studio, which recently received a Citation for Interior Architecture from the AIA | DC Chapter, reexamines long-held beliefs about the experience of an office. Through an approach we call “radical reduction,” we recast our workplace to support our staff, harness the value of in-office work, and minimize our carbon footprint. It is a holistic philosophy that uses resources responsibly, and coalesces openness, mobility, sustainability, and wellness into a refined and tranquil experience. With natural finishes, smart technology, biophilia, and settings for both group activity and quiet work, the design represents the type of studio that can bring out the best in everyone—a showcase for best practices in 21st-century workplace design.
Open Studio Night | SOLD OUT
Thursday, June 6
6:00 – 8:30 pm
