Buro Happold has been enlisted by the University of Southern California to craft key standards for environmental design and construction performance. The firm was selected through a competitive process to develop new sustainable design guidelines for the university.

Buro Happold will lead the creation of the guidelines “ensuring that the built environment touches the earth lightly while also caring for its occupants,” as stated by Buro Happold architect and associate principal Heidi Creighton. The firm will be supported by consulting partners Perkins&Will, construction engineering company Psomas, along with AHBE | MIG and David Neuman of Neu Campus Planning.

Buro Happold’s work with USC comes at a time when sustainability guidelines and assessment tools have become an essential component of long-term campus planning and institutional strategy. Aside from USC, the firm has established campus-wide standards and overarching sustainability plans for other universities globally, for private corporations such as Aviva Partners, and for local governments including the County of Los Angeles, the Minneapolis-St. Paul region, and New York’s Battery Park City.