Defending against natural hazards and terrorist threats is increasingly critical today. While not all sites require the same protections, our holistic approach to design considers the various risks and interdependent structural responses that could impact building and occupant safety under different threat scenarios. Our expertise spans projects of broad scope – from military and aviation facilities to a large public multimodal passenger terminal and mixed-use development – designed to GSA, DOD and other secure design criteria.

Even outside the public sector, we have analyzed and bolstered structural dynamics for commercial buildings that don’t have to follow strict mandates. Most new and existing structures can benefit from some degree of physical security, redundancy and resiliency that’s integrated or retrofitted to design.

As building codes and materials continue to evolve – and threat levels rise – it’s becoming more feasible and essential to build in structural features that help protect against progressive collapse and blast effects.

There are always trade-offs to secure design, and goals for structural hardening or anti-blast features must always be balanced against other project goals and constraints, from aesthetics to ensuring emergency evacuation and access routes remain open. Secure design criteria can actually conflict with seismic design codes, yet many lightweight and energy-efficient components that promote sustainability are highly compatible with secure design.

Choosing the right path isn’t easy, and it can be expensive, but we are dedicated to helping owners, stakeholders and our creative partners make informed decisions about how best to incorporate secure design criteria within the broader project context.

We can assist with – 

• Threat analysis and risk mitigation criteria
• Physical site security and logistics
• Ballistic, forced entry and vehicle ramming protections
• Blast design protection and dynamic load analysis 
• Protective glazing and glass hazard mitigation
• Progressive collapse prevention
• Structural hardening design and retrofit strategies