WSP Group brings “integrated design” to NYC projects

After consolidating its four U.S.-based businesses last month, London-based global engineering firm WSP Group plans to bring a new focus on integrated design to several New York City projects, including the World Trade Center site and 432 Park Avenue, the New York Observer reported.

The new focus on integrated design, or the principal of concentrating on how a building functions through all its collective systems, will begin at the World Trade Center site, where the firm is already involved, David Cooper, acting president and CEO of the company, told the Observer.

Silverstein Properties’ 2 World Trade Center is aiming for LEED certification, aided by WSP’s consultancy, and the firm helped to include a 10-story electrical substation at 7 World Trade Center, which will service much of Lower Manhattan, the Observer said.

WSP is also working on the development of Macklowe Properties’ 432 Park Avenue, slated to be the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere. And Forest City Ratner tapped WSP to design the core, shell and interior of the New York Times headquarters at 620 Eighth Avenue. Other projects have included Forest City Ratner’s Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards and the renovation of the Javits Convention Center.

One of its divisions, WSP Flack + Kurtz, is one of the largest engineering firms in New York City.

Genivar, an engineering consultancy, finalized a $442 million merger with the WSP Group last August. [NYO] –Mark Maurer