Game Changers

T. Rowe Price is currently engaged in an IPD contract with seven AEC firms for nine building renovations, including Building One at the firm’s Owings Mills, Md., campus. Courtesy T. Rowe Price. 

A Plenty employee tends to leafy greens growing in the startup’s indoor facility in South San Francisco. The facility relies on 7,500 infrared cameras and 35,000 sensors embedded among the greens that monitor the room’s temperature, humidity, and growing phases. Courtesy Plenty.

On two acres within Detroit’s North End, the Michigan Urban Farm Initiative grows 300 varieties of leafy vegetables that it distributes free to 2,000 families who live within two miles of the farm. Like many urban farms around the country, MUFI has spurred redevelopment in its surrounding communities. Photo: Michelle and Chris Gerard

Georgia Tech Research Institute has a contract to install tiles embedded with piezoelectric material into the “vapor trail” of the Visitors Center at the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Fla. The activated tiles act as a kind of keyboard that shows the planet and different aspects of NASA’s mission statement. Courtesy Formations Studio.

Brock Commons at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, employs hybrid construction, combining mass timber with concrete and steel. Shown here, workers position a CLT panel with steel stud framing and preinstalled windows. The Building Team includes: Acton Ostry Architects (architect), Architekten Hermann Kaufmann (tall wood advisor), Fast+Epp (SE), Stantec (ME and sustainability), GHL Consultants (fire science/building code), RDH Building Science (building science), and Urban One Builders (CM). Photo: Pollux Chung/Seagate Structures. 

Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada will soon be making battery units like the Powerwall and Powerpack, which can store solar power for residential and commercial uses, including electric cars, homes, and businesses. Photos courtesy Tesla Motors