New York, March 12, 2008 - Thornton Tomasetti, Inc., a leading building engineering and design firm, has received the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) New York Platinum Award for Structural Systems for its work on The Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

Thornton Tomasetti was selected as the engineer of record for the structural design of The Prudential Center, the new $310-million state-of-the-art sports and entertainment facility recently opened in downtown Newark. The new arena encompasses 858,000 square feet with a footprint of approximately 475 feet by 600 feet. Opened in October 2007, the Prudential Center is the first major indoor professional sports and entertainment venue to be completed in the metropolitan New Jersey/New York area in 25 years. It will be the centerpiece of a larger redevelopment program that is expected to revitalize downtown Newark.

The National Hockey League's New Jersey Devils, who are the primary user of The Prudential Center, retained HOK Sport Venue Event as the project architect of record. HOK chose Thornton Tomasetti to provide structural engineering services for the development, as well as Morris Adjmi Architects as the exterior design architects and Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, Inc. as the geotechnical engineers. Close and intense coordination of project team members was an important factor in the successful completion of the project.

Design on the project started in 2004 and involved several engineering challenges. To the west of a very tight urban site, adjacent structures included a historic church, a rail station and two low-rise buildings; on the other three sides roads were underlain by a vital grid of underground utilities that had to remain operable during construction. The site was on loose fill, therefore the soil had to be dynamically compacted to acceptable bearing values so that a shallow foundation system could be utilized that was much more economical than a deep pile foundation system.

The long-span roof over the main area bowl (approximately 420 feet long) was designed efficiently with respect to steel tonnage, erectability as well as functionality, keeping sight lines, the hung catwalks and the press box free of any obstructions. Two prominent glass and steel cylindrical structures, 110 feet tall and 70 feet in diameter, are featured on the arena's main entry. They were designed without any bracing to create the open atrium look and thus rely on a series of ring frames for stiffness and strength.

The fast-track construction schedule, in combination with existing local market conditions, were the main reasons that an all-steel scheme was chosen as the most suitable for the arena's structure.

About Thornton Tomasetti (www.ThorntonTomasetti.com)
Thornton Tomasetti provides building engineering services to clients worldwide on projects of all sizes and complexity. From the tallest buildings and the longest spans, to innovative building systems and materials, the firm is committed to creating the best solutions through its technical ingenuity, pursuit of excellence, and responsiveness to client needs.

Founded in 1956 as Lev Zetlin & Associates, today Thornton Tomasetti is a 650-person organization of engineers and architects, collaborating from offices across the United States and in Hong Kong, London, Moscow, and Shanghai. Services cover structural design, building evaluation, and remediation to optimize building efficiency and performance. Thornton Tomasetti mobilizes rapidly to provide disaster response investigations, and deliver expert consulting services and testimony for legal and insurance purposes.

Contact
Thornton Tomasetti - 917-661-7800
James M. Kent, JKent@ThorntonTomasetti.com