Mason & Hanger received a Grand Award from ACEC, for the company’s work at the New U.S. Embassy Campus in Pristina, Kosovo. Mason & Hanger was selected for this prestigious honor among the ACEC Virginia 2020 Engineering Excellence Awards, out of the more than 23 engineering projects submitted.
According to ACEC Virginia, “Competing firms [in 2020] won awards for some of the most innovative, dynamic projects in the years we have seen. The firms presented their skills through complex, inventive, environmentally challenging, and value-driven projects.”
As a recipient of an ACEC Virginia Grand Award, Mason & Hanger is eligible for the highest honor, The Pinnacle Award, to be announced at the EEA Gala in February. More information here.
More about Mason & Hanger’s Work at the New U.S. Embassy Campus, Pristina, Kosovo
To support the new nation in 2008, the United States built an embassy in the capital, Pristina. The 
fledgling nation had a fragile infrastructure and limited resources, which presented unique challenges and opportunities for the engineering design team. To ensure the mission can be maintained at all times, Mason & Hanger performed detailed planning and simulations to achieve a resilient, self-sustaining campus and ensure each design strategy contributed to multiple program objectives. The embassy is centered around a large water feature that serves as a collection reservoir for site storm water as well as effluent from the site’s wastewater treatment plant. The same pond serves a source for site irrigation water and gray water used within the buildings. Also, the water serves as a large heat sink for the central plant’s highly efficient ground-source heat pump system. The pond acts as a thermal battery allowing the building’s HVAC system to extract heat in cold months and reject waste heat in warmer weather. The combined effects result in the site being nearly net-zero about annual water use, almost 40% more than typical, code-compliant buildings, all while providing a quiet, pleasing environment, a home for native plant and animal species, and reduced operating and maintenance costs.
