2023 Engineering Excellence Grand Award Winner

Hdr Kiewit Global Headquarters

HDR is awarded the 2023 ACEC NE Engineering Excellence Grand Award for the Kiewit Global Headquarters.

Headquartered in Omaha since 1884, Kiewit Corporation is one of the largest contractors in the world. When the company decided to build a new headquarters, they decided on a north downtown location adjacent to their recently completed training center, Kiewit University, in part to encourage neighborhood redevelopment and reaffirm the company’s commitment to Omaha and Nebraska. 

The seven-story 180,000-square-foot building and connected parking structure houses 650 employees in a progressive workplace environment that fosters collaboration and interaction to support Kiewit’s global operations. In harmony with the surrounding city buildings, the ground floor is clad in brick, enlivening the street. The glass-clad office tower above features an enclosed, elevated walkway connecting to the training center. The building configuration incorporates covered pedestrian plazas and elevated exterior patios for gathering. 

The brick cladding evokes images of the turn-of-the-century warehouses that once filled downtown Omaha.  Inside the building, the owner wanted a “loft” aesthetic to help recruit and retain younger employees.  The steel framing remains exposed throughout most of the building as part of the “loft” look.  Because of this, the team made significant efforts to provide a clean layout of all exposed mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and lighting systems. 

In the office tower, the owner wanted as open a floor plan as possible. By shifting the core elements to the building’s north side, the team provided a 60-foot-wide, 250-foot-long, uninterrupted bay on the south side of the building, allowing for maximum flexibility in laying out the office space.

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Aaron Buettner

State Director

Aaron Buettner, PE, CVS leads Benesch’s Nebraska structural group, bringing more than 27 years of experience in structural engineering, project management and value engineering to every project he touches. His work spans highway, railroad and pedestrian bridges, and he has delivered public and private projects across the country involving a wide variety of materials and structure types.

Aaron’s technical depth covers the full project lifecycle, from structural design and in-service inspection to forensic evaluation and construction administration. He is proficient in multiple structural design and analysis software platforms and has a keen understanding of load paths and constructability. As a Certified Value Specialist (CVS), Aaron’s Value Engineering work has generated tens of millions of dollars in potential construction cost avoidance for clients ranging from state DOTs to transit agencies.

Notable projects include the Lincoln South Beltway, where his team designed 10 of 21 bridges on the freeway corridor; the N-12 Emergency Bridge Repairs in northeast Nebraska, where biddable plans for three flood-damaged structures were delivered in just three weeks; and the Penny Bridges Replacement in Lincoln, where value planning produced a context-sensitive solution that earned broad community support.

Aaron also serves as a Structures Specialist on Nebraska Task Force 1 (NE-TF1), which is one of 28 FEMA Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) teams located throughout the United States. In this role, he supports the search and rescue mission by assessing damaged structures, recommending structural hazard mitigation within those structures, and monitoring the structure for condition changes during rescue and victim recovery operations. During his tenure with NE-TF1, he has deployed ​on numerous missions within the state of Nebraska and around the nation to assist communities that have been impacted by emergencies or disasters.

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