Landmark Science & Engineering of New Castle, Del., has earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 49th annual Engineering Excellence Awards for designing the stormwater management system at the new headquarters of Sallie Mae, Inc., near Newark, DE.
When the student loan financing firm moved to its new location, it envisioned a stormwater pond that would provide aesthetic and recreational amenities to its employees, and a dynamic image for the business.
The project team retrofitted a 20-year old wet pond surrounded by buildings and parking lots into a unique 1.42‐acre, two‐tiered pond with a 96‐foot waterfall, boardwalk, paved walkways, and picnic areas.
A challenge was to bypass stormwater from the original pond without losing the protection it offered to the surrounding ecosystem. A special pump-bypass method diverted runoff to filter devices at two “lawn sumps,” which acted as temporary sediment basins. The stormwater was then pumped into a pre-installed manhole within a new outfall pipe.
The Landmark project is among 170 engineering projects throughout the nation and around the world recognized by ACEC as preeminent engineering achievements and eligible for one of the top 2015 Engineering Excellence Awards.
Judging for the Engineering Excellence Awards—known industry-wide as the “Academy Awards of the engineering industry”—took place in February and was conducted by a panel of more than 30 engineers, architects, government officials, media members, and academics. Awards criteria include uniqueness and originality, technical innovation, social and economic value, complexity, and success in meeting goals.
Final winners, including 16 Honor Awards, eight Grand Awards and the prestigious “Grand Conceptor Award” for the year’s most outstanding overall engineering achievement, will be announced at the Engineering Excellence Awards Gala, on April 21, at The Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.
