Spring 2023 Newsletter

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May 2023 NEWSLETTER

FROM THE CORNER OFFICE

John Sartor, PE President and CEO

Dear Friend of PS&S: In just the last few months, PS&S has earned three different project wins that are truly worth highlighting because I believe they speak to the breadth and strength of our firm. On the heels of a successful 2022, PS&S - along with our existing and new partners - was recently awarded large-scale projects for Holland Gardens, UGI Utilities and Gelest. Here's a quick look at each project followed by more detail from some of the professionals on the team. First, Holland Gardens. Some of you may recognize this name as one of Jersey City's five public housing complexes. I'm pleased to report that we have been awarded a four-year project to help redevelop this site. For PS&S, this is a milestone. It is the largest residential architecture and engineering project in our firm's 60-year history. Next up is a new project for UGI Utilities-an initial environmental investigation and remediation project of a former Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) site in Luzerne County, PA. This is an important effort to uncover any potential environmental liabilities on the property, so that UGI can implement a protective remedy. While PS&S has performed many similar projects for utilities in New Jersey and throughout the northeast, this is a first for us with UGI in Pennsylvania. The third project is for one of the largest chemical manufacturer's in the US, Gelest who has awarded us the Design/Build contract with our partner Barr & Barr, to deliver architectural and engineering design and construction phase services for a manufacturing facility utilizing damage limiting construction, specifically with respect to pressure releases that can occur during the manufacture of reagent chemicals. PS&S has designed damage-limiting, blast-resistant rooms in the past, but Gelest will be our first multi-vessel and multi-chamber building. I am pleased to share these updates with you and hope that you will read on to learn more firsthand from the team members who will work on these projects from groundbreaking to ribbon cutting. These wins also demonstrate the diversity of challenges that PS&S is able to meet in order to be successful. No two projects or clients alike, the diversity of our client base and project types has kept the organization strong and ready to face new challenges as they arise. With the breadth and depth of services that we offer, we are able to appeal to a broader group of clients who challenge us to think differently and deliver. New clients come to PS&S knowing that our diversity in professional experience will enable us to help them solve some of their most challenging architectural, environmental, engineering, and surveying issues. We thank them for their trust in PS&S. Sincerely, John Sartor, PE President and Chief Executive Officer

PROJECT: Holland Gardens

Jesper Ryberg Senior Director, Architecture

With a project size of over one million square feet and towering 26 stories, Holland Gardens, one of Jersey City's five public housing complexes, will be demolished and transformed into a mixed-income development with over 750-units, including 192 affordable units. The property will also include all the top-of-the-line amenities, including a library, community center, retail, and restaurants. PS&S was awarded the site architecture and engineering for the four-year project, working with developer WinnDevelopment on the three-acre site that was initially developed in 1944. "This is one of the biggest projects in the company's history," notes Jesper Ryberg, Senior Director, Architecture, with PS&S. "Further, this is very much about the new way of doing architecture, to truly integrate affordable housing into the community, which is how affordable housing programs were originally thought of." The Holland Gardens redevelopment project is also a culmination of the company's experience and growth trajectory. Ryberg points out that not only have the sizes of PS&S's residential projects increased, moving from 50 and 100-unit buildings to the 750-unit size of Holland Gardens, but the company has also "raised the level of product, catering to a much broader spectrum, from the high-end luxury market to affordable housing."

PROJECT: UGI Utilities, Inc.

Mike Newton, LSRP, PG Senior Project Manager, Remediation

PS&S was recently awarded a project for the Initial Environmental Investigation of a former Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) site in Luzerne County, PA, for UGI Utilities Inc., a natural gas and electric utility serving over 700,000 customers in 45 counties in Pennsylvania and one county in Maryland. The investigation is a remediation project, in which PS&S collects data, samples, and site knowledge to understand whether environmental remedial action related to potential contamination will be necessary. Property owners may not be aware of the environmental impact of the former manufacturing operations on their property; this is because most of the structures are long gone or buried. As such, the need for a thorough environmental investigation and remediation is needed to identify if protective remedies are needed. Prior to the development of the interstate pipeline network to deliver natural gas supplies in the 1930s, MGPs operated in many communities providing piped gas locally to homes and businesses. For as long as a century, companies like UGI owned and operated MGPs that used coal, coke, and oil as the raw materials for gas production-when environmental protection laws may have been non-existent. "What's unique about this project is that it is our first manufactured gas plant remediation project that we've been awarded by UGI," explains Mike Newton, LSRP, PG, and Senior Project Manager, Remediation, with PS&S. "It's the start of a really exciting relationship with another gas utility client, supporting them and remediating their historic MGP liabilities."

PROJECT: Gelest, Inc. - Chemical Manufacturing

Tom Scally Senior Director, Architecture

Part of the Mitsubishi Chemical Group, Gelest, Inc. is a manufacturer and global supplier of specialty chemicals, including silicones, organosilanes, metal-organics, and acrylate monomers. These chemicals are used in the manufacture of pharmaceutical, personnel care products and the semi-conductor industries. PS&S will be providing A/E design and construction phase services for two proposed buildings for Gelest located in Morrisville, PA. PS&S, through our Design/Build project partner, construction manager Barr and Barr. PS&S is providing architectural, structural, fire protection, plumbing, mechanical/HVAC, and electrical engineering services. The manufacturing building (Building 8) is a combination of chemical manufacturing, QA laboratories, ISO-7 clean room chemical formulations, process equipment rooms and office spaces. However, the bulk of the project will be in the design of Gelests main manufacturing/reactor areas, which will be three floors, consisting of approximately 50,000 square feet. This manufacturing building is being designed to withstand the extreme situations inherent in chemical manufacturing; pressure/blast relief and containment. The building requires damage limiting construction to withstand a process pressure release (blast), to ensure personnel safety and building continuity. As well as chemical and fire water containment. The reactor suites are robust in their designs, with 14" thick poured concrete walls, blast resistant doors and pressure relief exterior façade panels. "This project is unique because, this is the first time that the firm has been asked to design an entire chemical manufacturing building that requires damage limiting construction," says Thomas Scally, Senior Director, Architecture, for PS&S. PS&S's Science and Technology sector personnel have completed similar small scale projects for single rooms, however this is the first ground up, multi-story, multi-vessel, and multi-chemical reactor building for the company.