October 18, 2021

We are pleased to share that our design for O'Hare's Emergency & Standby Power System received an Honor Award during AIA Chicago’s Designight 2021!

As the premier architectural celebration of the year, we are delighted to have received the Honor Award in the Divine Detail category.

For this project, Epstein provided engineering and architectural design services required to replace and design the new power system, which includes the generators as well as electrical distribution in all of the terminals and the Hilton Hotel. Essentially, this infrastructure is a backup power plant that serves various emergency and standby loads throughout the entire airport. In the event of an outrage, it's what O'Hare relies on to ensure power to selected systems is maintained.

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The Epstein-designed replacement is more computer driven and digitally based than the former system. It increases the existing capacity from 8-10 megawatts to 18 megawatts, enough to power several thousand homes. The system includes over 120 automatic transfer switches, located throughout the airport, to allow for the critical loads to be transferred to the backup power source in an outage. In addition, the generators, distribution, and transfer switches are all networked and monitored to provide O'Hare the means to easily run and maintain the system. As a result, O'Hare has greater system functionality and efficiency during emergencies in which normal operations have been impaired.

We are extremely proud of the design and engineering solutions our team was able to develop for O'Hare, and are pleased to be recognized by the AIA!