flexiblefullpage -
billboard - default
interstitial1 - interstitial
catfish1 - bottom
Currently Reading

Software giant SAP opens engineering academy for its global engineering workforce

Office Buildings

Software giant SAP opens engineering academy for its global engineering workforce

At almost 57,000 sf, the facility features a variety of learning and collaboration spaces—from coding caves to a high-tech virtual reality room.


By Novid Parsi, Contributing Editor | December 7, 2022
SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies
A coding wall at the new SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA. All photos: Chad Davies, courtesy HGA

Software giant SAP has opened its new SAP Academy for Engineering on the company’s San Ramon, Calif. campus. Designed by HGA, the Engineering Academy will provide professional development opportunities for SAP’s global engineering workforce. 

At the Engineering Academy, cohorts from SAP offices across the globe will come together for intensive, six-month training programs. These innovators and thought leaders will then carry their new insights to the rest of the organization. 

At almost 57,000 sf, the facility includes flexible project rooms for teamwork and coding caves for more private deskwork. Other spaces include a high-tech virtual reality room, a creativity room with a touch-screen table, a central auditorium called The Arena, a café and lounge, and a museum of successful innovations. At the Academy Pledge Wall, graduates take an engineer’s pledge to promote the Academy’s values in their professional community.

“SAP’s relentless commitment to advancing the culture of engineering inspired our design of the Academy for Engineering,” Lisa Macaluso, principal and national interior design business development leader at HGA and the project’s lead, said in a statement. “Consequently, our design encourages and celebrates lifelong learning.”

SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies

Along with consulting partner Purple, HGA infused SAP’s history and values of craftsmanship, curiosity, courage, compassion, and community into the Academy’s design. For example, the facility walls showcase SAP’s earliest code, while the café boasts locally sourced tiles and a lakeside view.

With a collection of rare books by Nobel Prize laureates, the Academy’s museum also reminds employees of SAP’s purpose and values. And the central, circular Arena emphasizes the values of curiosity and community by placing speakers at eye level with the audience.

On the Building Team:
Owner and developer: SAP
Architect: HGA
Structural engineer: HGA
General contractor/construction manager: Source Construction, Inc.
Curriculum/user experience consultant: Purple

SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies

SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies

SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies

SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies

SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies

SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies

SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies

SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies

SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies

SAP Academy for Engineering, designed by HGA Photo Chad Davies

Related Stories

| Dec 12, 2011

Mojo Stumer takes top honors at AIA Long Island Design Awards

Firm's TriBeCa Loft wins "Archi" for interior design.

| Dec 10, 2011

10 Great Solutions

The editors of Building Design+Construction present 10 “Great Solutions” that highlight innovative technology and products that can be used to address some of the many problems Building Teams face in their day-to-day work. Readers are encouraged to submit entries for Great Solutions; if we use yours, you’ll receive a $25 gift certificate. Look for more Great Solutions in 2012 at: www.bdcnetwork.com/greatsolutions/2012.

| Dec 10, 2011

Energy performance starts at the building envelope

Rainscreen system installed at the west building expansion of the University of Arizona’s Meinel Optical Sciences Center in Tucson, with its folded glass wall and copper-paneled, breathable cladding over precast concrete.

| Dec 10, 2011

Turning Balconies Outside In

Operable glass balcony glazing systems provide solution to increase usable space in residential and commercial structures. 

| Dec 10, 2011

BIM tools to make your project easier to manage

Two innovations—program manager Gafcon’s SharePoint360 project management platform and a new BIM “wall creator” add-on developed by ClarkDietrich Building Systems for use with the Revit BIM platform and construction consultant—show how fabricators and owner’s reps are stepping in to fill the gaps between construction and design that can typically be exposed by working with a 3D model.

| Dec 9, 2011

BEST AEC FIRMS 2011: EYP Architecture & Engineering

Expertise-Driven Design: At EYP Architecture & Engineering, growing the business goes hand in hand with growing the firm’s people.

| Dec 8, 2011

HDR opens office in Shanghai

The office, located in the Chong Hing Finance Center in Shanghai’s busy Huangpu District, will support HDR’s design efforts throughout Asia. 

| Dec 8, 2011

HOK elevates the green office standard

Firm achieves LEED Platinum certification in New York office that overlooks Bryant Park.

| Dec 6, 2011

?ThyssenKrupp acquires Sterling Elevators Services

The acquisition of Sterling Elevator Services Corporation is the third acquisition completed by ThyssenKrupp Elevator AG in the last three months in North America. 

| Dec 6, 2011

New office building features largest solar panel system in New Orleans

Woodward Design+Build celebrates grand opening of new green headquarters in Central City.

boombox1 - default
boombox2 -
native1 -

More In Category


AEC Innovators

3 ways the most innovative companies work differently

Gensler’s pre-pandemic workplace research reinforced that great workplace design drives creativity and innovation. Using six performance indicators, we're able to view workers’ perceptions of the quality of innovation, creativity, and leadership in an employee’s organization.


Laboratories

HGA unveils plans to transform an abandoned rock quarry into a new research and innovation campus

In the coastal town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., an abandoned rock quarry will be transformed into a new research and innovation campus designed by HGA. The campus will reuse and upcycle the granite left onsite. The project for Cell Signaling Technology (CST), a life sciences technology company, will turn an environmentally depleted site into a net-zero laboratory campus, with building electrification and onsite renewables.


halfpage1 -

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021