12.08.2020 — On Tuesday, December 1, 2020, the Amazon in the Regrade project in downtown Seattle was honored with a Grand Award for Engineering Excellence from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). The announcement was made during ACEC’s 53rd Annual Awards Gala, which was held virtually and drew more than 650 attendees.

The three-block, 5.2-million-square-foot development is a modern, innovative, and sustainable corporate campus integrated seamlessly into the city’s core. Completed in 2019, Amazon in the Regrade includes three 38-story office towers, street-level retail, large assembly rooms, outdoor public areas, and the iconic Spheres—three intersecting, glass-and-steel conservatories that aim to enhance employee creativity and collaboration by offering treehouse meeting rooms, waterfalls, a four-story “living wall,” and over 40,000 exotic plants from 30 countries. With an overall height equivalent to a nine-story building, The Spheres are 130, 100, and 85 feet in diameter. Their unique shape and design are comprised of structural steel sculpted to repeat a shape within the plane of a pentagon, then repeating that shape 60 times to make up a complete sphere.

MKA was part of the project development team, which included architect NBBJ, owner representative/development manager Seneca Group, and general contractor Sellen Construction. The team was tasked with creating a connected, community-invested campus that reinvented the traditional corporate suburban campus.

This year, ACEC considered more than 200 projects from around the world before selecting 15 Grand Award recipients, 20 Honor Award recipients, and one Grand Conceptor Award recipient. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., ACEC represents more than 600,000 engineers, land surveyors, and other technical specialists.

This is the second time this year ACEC has honored the Amazon in the Regrade project. In January 2020, the organization’s Washington State chapter selected the project to receive an Engineering Excellence Gold Award in the Structural Systems category.

» Amazon in the Regrade Wins ACEC National Grand Award

07.10.2020 — MKA is excited to announce that the recently completed Chase Center project in San Francisco, California, has received the Jurors’ Favorite/Most Innovative Structure Award for Excellence in Structural Engineering from The Structural Engineers Association of Illinois.  The 1,740,000-square-foot, first-in-class venue features an 18,000-seat arena for ecstatic Golden State Warriors fans; a team headquarters; two, 11-story office towers; a jewel-box gatehouse; 29 retail outlets; two atrium entrances; and a unique, cantilevering “Skybar." Chase Center successfully transformed a deteriorating portion of San Francisco’s Mission Bay District and established a new benchmark for world-class sports and entertainment venues. First-of-their-kind engineering solutions and exemplary team collaboration contributed to successful construction despite extreme site challenges and ambitious program demands. The complex project was successfully delivered by the design and construction team, consisting of architect of record Kendall/Heaton Associates, arena design architect Manica Architecture, and arena interiors architect Gensler, structural engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates, general contractor Mortenson | Clark JV, and the engagement from dozens of local engineering firms and local sub-contractors to achieve The Golden State Warriors’ vision for a world-class sports and entertainment venue!

MKA has received the top award from SEAOI for 18 of the past 19 years! Congrats to the Chase Center team on this well deserved honor!

» Chase Center Wins SEAOI Most Innovative Structure Award!

02.10.2020 — MKA is pleased to announce that on Friday, January 24^th, The American Council of Engineering Companies Washington awarded the Amazon in the Regrade project a Gold Award in the Structural Systems Category for Engineering Excellence. The award ceremony took place at the ACEC Gala in Bellevue, Washington, where several MKA employees were on hand to receive the award. The Amazon in the Regrade project celebrates the recently complete Amazon Rufus 2.0 headquarters in downtown Seattle, which covers three city blocks and includes three, 38-story office towers, street-level retail, large assembly rooms, outdoor public areas, and “The Spheres” as the iconic centerpiece. The modern, innovative, and sustainable corporate design, was successfully delivered by the design and construction team, consisting of architects NBBJ, structural engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates, owner representative/development managers Seneca Group, and general contractor Sellen Construction, who collaborated to achieve Amazon’s vision for a connected, community-invested campus, seamlessly integrated into the city’s core.

Congratulations to the other 24 projects that were also honored in this year’s program. To read more, download the special section to the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce here.

» ACEC Gold Award Amazon in the Regrade