This episode examines the Missouri Botanical Garden’s new Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center in St. Louis, winner of ENR’s National 2024 Best of the Best Project Award in the cultural category. The LEED Gold project houses an event center, gift shop, meeting spaces, restaurant, and auditorium, and included the renovation of the historic Linnean House, the oldest continuously operated public greenhouse west of the Mississippi. Insight into the project is provided by guests Zach Carter of IMEG and Deniz Piskin, Vice President for Facilities and Construction at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

The decision to build the new center was largely driven by continual growth in the number of annual visitors; last year 1.3 million people visited the Garden, far more than the previous center could have comfortably accommodated. “The way the original visitor center was constructed, there were a lot of little bottlenecks in getting visitors through the center and into the garden,” Deniz says.

The overall visitor experience was the other focus of the project. In addition to the vastly improved entrance and its accessibility, upon entering the new center, visitors are immersed in natural light as they view the exterior gardens through the facility’s south wall of windows. An architectural lantern, or skylight, in the lobby includes a custom-designed scrim perforated in a pattern inspired by tree canopies. These and many other biophilic elements bring the outdoors in. “Everywhere you look, there's something related to nature,” says Deniz.

Hidden from sight are the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and technology systems designed by IMEG. Key features include a 50,000-gallon rainwater collection cistern to provide water for the plants in the greenhouse (botanical garden staff consider rain “liquid gold”); displacement ventilation/natural stratification in the 50-foot tall lobby to improve occupant comfort; rooftop solar arrays; and a generator devoted to providing backup power to maintain the appropriate climate for the greenhouse, which features a variety of plants from the Mediterranean.

Collaboration among all stakeholders was integral to the design-assist project, which was completed in multiple phases and included the construction of a temporary visitor center to keep the Garden open to visitors throughout construction.

Deniz advises other organizations contemplating such a milestone project to “start with a clear understanding of what your goals and objectives are and check back throughout the design process to ensure you are not deviating from your goals. That's what this team did. We always kept in mind our visitors, always kept in mind the visitor experience.”

See photos of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center and read the IMEG project case study. For further information and photographs, read this feature published by Metropolis.

This episode of The Future Built Smarter examines the state of the hospitality market with IMEG’s Bob Winter—one in a series of conversations with the firm’s market sector leaders.

Most recently serving as an IMEG client executive in southern California, Bob is now turning his full attention to the growth and continued development of IMEG’s portfolio in the hospitality sector—a market he has led for several years and in which he has vast experience. “I absolutely am excited,” he says of his re-established focus.

“Our hospitality group includes MEP, structural, technology, and architectural lighting experts, and our teams are spread across the country, from New York and Philadelphia to Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, and Southern California. “Hospitality is relationship-based,” he adds, with teams assembled for specific projects based on the type of project and expertise required, regardless of where a project is located. “Projects led by developers or architects in Chicago could be taking place in other markets throughout the country, maybe South Florida, for example. It always helps if we have an office where the project is, which we often do, but the design can be done by a remote team.”

Bob’s key goals include expanding IMEG’s work in luxury resorts, adaptive reuse, and major renovation projects. “The more complicated, the more challenging projects—those are the ones we want to acquire more of,” he says. Efficiency is another priority. “I want to work with the team so that we’re very efficient in our execution, taking advantage of hospitality’s repetitive design elements. Every property is unique, but guest room stacks are often similar, for example.”

While economic uncertainty has been “top of mind” in the industry for the past year and a half, he says 2025 has been identified as a year of “cautious optimism.” One area of growth is in branded residences, which help finance hospitality projects. “We have a number of these that we were successful in winning—like a Dream Hotel with condos, a Waldorf project with residences, and a Breckenridge Grand Vacation project,” he says. Another area of opportunity is in property improvement plans (PIPs), which require hotels to undergo updates every seven to 10 years. “Certainly, during COVID, PIP requirements got lax,” Bob says. “Some properties look tired as a result. But PIPs are no longer optional going forward.”

A key geographic area for growth is the Sun Belt—particularly Florida, Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina. “There’s quite a bit of work happening there,” he says. He also sees renewed investment interest in San Francisco and San Diego. “San Francisco is attracting private equity interest because properties can likely be obtained at a good deal, and recovery is noticeable.”

Despite the uncertainties in the market, Bob remains optimistic about the future of hospitality. “Hopefully by the end of Q1 or Q2, we’ll see a resurgence,” he says. “Consistent schedules, less delays, and more activity across the board—that’s what I’m hoping for.”

This episode of The Future Built Smarter features Steve Meyer, IMEG’s Transportation and Bridge Market Leader. “I try to get to know all of IMEG’s client executives and business developers to see where we can help fill the needs of our clients,” Steve says. This holistic approach, he adds, allows IMEG to provide comprehensive engineering design and services as needed for any project—from roadways to bridges to buildings—creating a seamless process for clients. “It makes it easy for the client that they can just hire one firm and fulfill quite a few services. Not only can we design their building, we also can design the road to their building.”

IMEG’s transportation projects include traffic studies, bridge, roadway, and highway design, rehabilitation and inspection, non-motorized corridors, and grant applications that secure funding for infrastructure improvements. In the wake of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, Steve says there have been many infrastructure improvements made across the country but there’s much more work to be done. “Overall, my impression of roads and bridges today is that they’re improving,” he says. “We’re getting better as a nation, but we still have a long way to go.”

Steve points to new techniques in the past several years that now can be used to extend the life of roads and bridges, helping clients get more for their money and delay more expensive replacement projects. Technological advances, too, have played a big role in how services are delivered. “The biggest change I’ve seen in transportation over the last 10 years has been the use of drone technology,” Steve says. “We can use drones to survey roads, inspect bridges, and even explore hard-to-reach areas. It saves time, improves safety, and gives us incredible precision.” Widespread use of 360-degree cameras also has allowed engineers to quickly and safely capture detailed views of infrastructure and sites. “We can even lower these cameras into manholes to inspect pipes and systems without putting anyone in harm’s way.”

Steve finds great satisfaction in helping provide the infrastructure that people need to improve their communities and way of life, one of the main reasons he became an engineer more than 20 years ago. A recent project he worked on in South Dakota, for example, replaced a deteriorating bridge on a roadway through a lake with a box culvert, a more economical, longer lasting, and adaptable solution. “The lake’s rising levels were inundating the road and damaging the bridge,” he says. “By replacing it with a box culvert designed to allow for future elevation changes, we ensured the road could remain open longer, even as water levels rise. This is critical for the community—it connects a rural school with the nearby town.”

Steve expects transportation projects to continue status quo over the next five to 10 years as the country continues to grapple with catching up on projects to repair, replace, and improve worn-out and outdated infrastructure. At the same time, he expects IMEG will play an ever larger role in such projects as the firm continues to grow and add new specialties. “We’ll continue to see a lot of transportation projects, but as more teams join IMEG, we’ll gain even more expertise and capacity to take on diverse challenges. Our goal in the transportation market remains the same: to help communities improve their roads and bridges.”

This episode of The Future Built Smarter examines the intersection of AEC technology and artificial intelligence (AI) with guest Alice Leung, Vice President at Brick and Mortar Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that focuses on construction technology. Alice explains that the firm invests in startups that address existing productivity challenges within the industry. "We're here to invest in startups that are trying to solve real problems in the construction industry—not just crazy solutions looking for problems to solve.”

Alice says the industry is seeing an influx of interest and investment in technology—noteworthy at a time when McKinsey & Company reports continue to highlight stagnation in construction productivity. "The industry is frustrated that the world thinks we are not more innovative, more technology forward, or productive," she says.

AI is the chief driver of innovative construction technology, with current practical applications including streamlining manual tasks to make operations more efficient. This is transforming the estimating process, for example, with some AI software companies using AI to count components such as light fixtures or toilets from PDFs and models, significantly reducing the time and labor required for these tasks—and freeing up technical staff for more important design tasks. “Another low-hanging fruit area is in RFP's—just being able to take past project proposals [and using AI] to help write new proposal material,” Alice says. “So, if you're limited by the number of people that you have putting together proposals, if you're able to leverage AI to speed up a lot of that work, in theory, you can go after more projects, you can win more work, build out a stronger pipeline.”

Alice adds that AI also is being used more and more to quickly create 3D environments to allow architects and engineers to present their designs to clients at an early stage, allowing them to visually understand the design and speed up decision-making. "Generative AI is really good at turning sketches into photorealistic stuff... There is just so much auto creation of virtual environments."

Those in the AEC industry who are looking to innovate with AI technologies should not overlook the importance of governance, particularly regarding data privacy. "There’s a lot of conversation around data privacy... do we share our data with startups?" Alice says. When evaluating working with startups, she adds, “make sure that they have the technology architecture to be able but to swap in and swap out AI models,” which are getting better and exponentially faster—and often updated every six months or so. “The last thing you want is to have a big partnership with a startup that has hard coded their model or has built it in a way where they can't swap it out easily.”

Learn more about Brick & Mortar Ventures at brickmortar.vc/.

This episode of The Future Built Smarter features Matt Malcolm, leader of IMEG’s newest service, IMEG Labs. “With IMEG Labs we are able to offer our clients third-party unbiased evaluation of technology as part of the design process—ahead of actual construction events or implementation on a client's site,” says Matt. The evaluations and demonstrations are conducted at the IMEG Labs testing site in the firm’s office in Naperville, IL. “We can take the different technologies that we're describing as we talk about integration and smart buildings and bring them into our small-scale environment. We can leverage the agile framework and talk about how these things fit together, build out some proof of concepting, and make adjustments before we actually have people installing these things on site.” Owners and clients are encouraged to visit IMEG Labs for demonstrations of their anticipated technology solutions and integrations.

“It's really about all the things that are behind the walls, the things that are above the ceilings, the things that are in the IDF closets—all the different functional boxes and smart pieces and parts that are connected to a network and drive how a business operates, whether it's a hospital or a school or an airport. We connect them together with the appropriate wires to showcase everything it takes to achieve the business outcome or use case that a client is looking for.”

This service, Matt adds, “allows us to early in the process decide what brands or manufacturers work well together, which ones might be a barrier to implementing because there's a huge implementation cost or integration development cost. It's about timely evaluation of how these systems are going to work together so that they can influence the decisions.”

IMEG Labs also can set up mockups for training and continual improvement at a client’s site and can innovate solutions for which there may not yet be a product on the market that allows an owner to push the envelope.

“Clients are coming up with some great ideas and we're taking those ideas and trying to see how they could come to life. We're piloting a couple of different technologies—things that haven't really been done before in certain environments.”

Listen to the podcast to learn more or contact Matt Malcolm.

This episode of The Future Built Smarter features Dr. Sam Zolfagharian, president of the AI consulting firm YegaTech, which helps AEC companies adapt to the era of disruption caused by the introduction of artificial intelligence into the industry. A keynote speaker and author of the forthcoming book, “Disrupt It,” Sam also holds a Ph.D. in design computing and construction management and has over 20 years of experience developing technologies for the industry. Of six essential elements AEC companies should focus on when creating an AI strategy, she says the first step is establishing a culture of innovation. “If we can’t get the buy-in from our employees, if we don't change their mindset, it doesn't matter which tool we bring on board, it doesn't matter how much investment we do—they're not going to adopt it. “They might be scared of AI taking over their job, or they might just not be interested to try it because they're missing the ‘why’ part. So, it's really important to build that culture of innovation.”

Even high-level executives sometimes need enlightenment as to the benefits of using AI to improve processes and outcomes. The day before Sam was to present an AR workshop for a company, a board member shared her skepticism about the usefulness of AI. After the session, however, the board member told Sam she now understood how AI could help their employees and augment their jobs.

“At that moment I wondered how many other executives and board members may have the same mindset because they've been in the industry for a while and are skeptical about technology,” said Sam. “So, I'm hoping that with education we can change that mindset and build that culture of innovation for our industry.”

To learn more about YegaTech and the upcoming book, “Disrupt It,” visit https://yegatech.com/.

Decarbonization of energy-intensive laboratories takes center stage in this episode featuring guests from the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL).

“Laboratories are one of the highest consumers of energy because of the needs around safety,” says Gordon Sharp, I2SL president. “We’re talking about wet labs, which typically deal with hazardous materials or chemicals and require large amounts of ventilation. They also have other needs such as fume hoods and exposure control devices. Their unique design and operational requirements make them very different from other types of buildings.”

The I2SL’s Labs2Zero initiative, launched in 2022, is designed to help the industry reduce energy consumption and take steps toward decarbonization. While the initiative emphasizes retrofitting existing labs, it also is expanding its focus to include new lab facilities as well.

“This is I2SL's grand plan for decarbonizing lab facilities,” says Alison Farmer, Labs2Zero program director and I2SL board secretary. “Decarbonization is a real challenge in lab facilities, but it's also a significant opportunity. These labs are consuming a lot more energy per square foot than most other types of facilities. And because they're complex, because they're typically unique, and because you have to consider safety and everything else, they often have gotten left out of some of the bigger programs dealing with building decarbonization.”

Labs2Zero resources include “score cards” in which owners can benchmark their building’s energy consumption and operational emissions compared to I2SL’s industry-wide database of energy use from more than 1,000 lab buildings. Other resources available now or in the future include embodied carbon benchmarking, Labs2Zero certification of the building energy scores, training for users of the program, and tools to help owners improve the performance of their buildings.

To help owners identify the next steps on their decarbonization journey, Labs2Zero will be launching its AIM reporting tool in the coming months. This will guide owners through evaluating appropriate measures for decarbonization for their building and ultimately create a plan and business case for improvements.

“With all of these components in place, we know that Labs2Zero is going to make a big difference in decarbonization of lab facilities,” says Farmer.

Decarbonization, energy efficiency, and sustainability in laboratories and other high-tech facilities will be examined during the I2SL’s 2024 Annual Conference, “The Gateway to Efficient Labs,” Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 in St. Louis. The conference draws architects, engineers, lab owners, and sustainability professionals from around the world.

Learn more about the I2SL, Labs2Zero, and the I2SL Annual Conference.

IMEG’s Peter Monroe joins this episode of The Future Built Smarter to share the experiences of his recent site visit to Antarctica. A former client executive and a structural engineer for 55 years, Peter made the journey from Denver to Antarctica in early 2024 to visit a project at McMurdo Station, a National Science Foundation research facility on Ross Island. McMurdo is undergoing extensive updates, and Peter’s visit was to observe the structural construction of the station’s new dormitory, one of two buildings for which IMEG has provided structural construction documents.

Established in 1955, McMurdo consists of numerous buildings and infrastructure of varying sizes and functions, many that are no longer used, others that will be replaced and consolidated into more efficient modern facilities. “I've been telling people the best way to describe it is like some of the old mining towns here in Colorado or out in California that are half abandoned,” Peter says of his first impressions of McMurdo. He also discusses the added challenges of design and construction in the Antarctic—extreme weather and permafrost, materials logistics, limited construction seasons—and key takeaways from the dormitory project. “Generally, we made good decisions,” he says, adding that there were many lessons learned to apply to the core building—the next project IMEG will design for the NSF. “The dormitory is one of their first major projects and hopefully the lessons transfer.”

While he was scheduled to be at McMurdo for six days, bad weather and airplane mechanical issues extended his stay to 12 days. That allowed him to be present for the dormitory “topping off” ceremony—the hoisting and placement of the final structural steel beam, which he signed along with the other project team partners who were present. The additional days also gave him extra time to explore and take photos and videos of the Antarctic’s native residents. “One of the days, there were two little Adelie penguins walking down the road and we were all standing there watching them. Another day the big emperor penguins came in and there was probably 50, 60, or 70 of them.”

The Antarctica trip will always stand out among Peter’s career highlights and is decidedly his farthest site visit ever—eclipsing a past visit to Saudi Arabia and easily outdistancing anything else. “For something that was in Denver, I'd leave the office in the morning, go out, and be back before lunch.”

Watch a video of Peter Monroe’s Antarctica site visit.