Under Armour Global Headquarters

Overview

When Under Armour started planning a new building on their Baltimore, Maryland, campus, they wanted it to reflect their commitment to optimizing performance and acting sustainably. We helped architect Gensler to embody these values in the design of Under Armour’s new global headquarters. The 280,000-square-foot office building‘s mass timber structure is an eco-conscious choice that cuts embodied carbon and imparts an appealing aesthetic to interior spaces.

During the first phase of design, we collaborated with Gensler to develop structural schemes for mass timber, concrete and steel to uncover the pros and cons of each. We calculated quantity estimates for all three and used Beacon – the embodied-carbon-tracking Revit plug-in we developed – to assess the impacts of all three materials. These details helped UA evaluate the options and make a fully informed decision to choose timber.

When Austrian mass-timber supplier binderholz was selected, we engaged with their team on the design of structural components. Collaborating closely, we evolved our design to accommodate their proprietary connections and adjust member sizes to match their fabrication practices.

Highlights

• The five-story building features architecturally exposed timber and concealed timber connections.
• The use of mass timber made it possible to use a shallow foundation system, yielding significant reductions in construction schedule and cost, as well as in embodied carbon.
• A 30-foot square bay module uses cross-laminated timber decks along with glulam beams and columns.
• Adopting binderholtz’s proprietary connections accelerated fabrication and onsite erection using a crew of fewer than ten people.
• Our structural design also supports a rainwater capture system, a green roof and a canopy carrying photovoltaic panels to help the new headquarters achieve net-zero-energy operations.