Stephen Curtis PE, CEng MICE
Principal, Buro Happold
Stephen Curtis is a Principal at Buro Happold in the New York Structures team. With more than 25 years of experience, Stephen has worked on a variety of projects regionally as well as globally across industry sectors including higher education, cultural, civic and urban design. He has led the delivery of the structural design and construction administration on a number of complex multidisciplinary projects including the Arizona State University Rob and Melani Walton Center for Planetary Health and the Harvard Science and Engineering Complex. Having led the engineering design for many successful projects, Stephen understands how to integrate client needs with an architect’s vision.
Stephen recently led the structural development of Amy Gutmann Hall at the University of Pennsylvania. This six-story mass timber building will be the first in Philadelphia and one of the largest in the region, with embodied carbon reductions of up to 50% when compared to other structural framing options.
Amy Gutmann Hall, A New Home for Data Science for Penn Engineering
Penn Engineering’s Amy Gutmann Hall will serve as a hub for cross-disciplinary collaborations that harness research and data across Penn’s 12 schools and numerous academic centers. At six-stories tall, the building is on track to become Philadelphia’s tallest new mass timber building. This presentation will consist of a brief project and design overview followed by a panel discussion amongst representatives from the project team. Panelists will explore the decision to pursue mass timber, highlighting its benefits to schedule, cost, sustainability, and impact on occupant well-being, as well as the feasibility and accessibility of this construction type. The goal of this session is to educate, motivate, and inspire others by showcasing the ease, efficiency, and natural beauty of wood in the building’s design.