![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PIT-New-Terminal_Exterior-1_Design-Credit-Gensler-HDR-in-association-with-luis-vidal-architects_Phot.jpeg\")
Image: Ema Peter.<\/p>\nHear from the Buro Happold team on the engineering behind Pittsburgh International Airport\u2019s new landside terminal.<\/p>\n
When Pittsburgh International Airport opened its new landside terminal in November 2025, it wasn\u2019t just a ribbon\u2011cutting \u2013 it was a reset. The project replaced a 30\u2011year\u2011old layout designed for a hub airline that no longer exists, transforming the airport into a streamlined, Pittsburgh\u2011first operation built around the people who actually use it.<\/p>\n
Image: Ema Peter.<\/p>\n
The Terminal Modernization Program<\/a> (TMP) did more than link a new 800,000 ft\u00b2 landside terminal<\/a> directly to the existing concourses. It rethought a half\u2011mile disconnect between tickets and gates, retired the underground tram called the Automatic People Mover (APM), and re\u2011established clarity, comfort, and efficiency as the organizing principles of the passenger journey.<\/p>\n For Buro Happold, the challenge was both technical and cultural: engineer a right\u2011sized terminal that would feel effortless to travelers while quietly delivering resilience, efficiency, and long-term operability. In this Q&A, the team walks through the decisions behind the systems \u2013 from displacement ventilation to microgrid integration \u2013 and the choreography required to modernize an airport without ever shutting it down.<\/p>\n Meet the engineering team behind the new terminal<\/p>\n Jeremy SnyderUS Aviation Director<\/p>\n Matt HochbergerAssociate Principal, Project Lead<\/p>\n Joseph GausAssociate Principal, Overview and Impact<\/p>\n Mike WeleskiAssociate Principal, Program and MEP\/Plumbing<\/p>\n John ShawAssociate Principal | Mechanical<\/p>\n Yelena NelsonSenior Mechanical Engineer, design and impact<\/p>\n Jeremy HallAssociate, Electrical\/Microgrid<\/p>\n Rachel WeaverElectrical Engineer<\/p>\n A building shaped by use, not nostalgia<\/p>\n The old Pittsburgh terminal felt stuck in the early 1990s: a mall\u2011like landside building, security, and then a tram ride to a distant airside concourse. It was a spatial diagram designed for connections, not for the 98% of travelers who now begin or end their journeys in Pittsburgh. The new plan positions the landside terminal directly against the airside concourses. \u201cThe split made a stressful trip more stressful,\u201d said Joe Gaus, associate principal. \u201cNow the sequence is straightforward: check in, central screening, and a short connector \u2013 no train, fewer unknowns.\u201d The modernization project reversed the logic. Ticketing, screening, and arrivals were consolidated into a single hall linked directly to the gates, cutting time and uncertainty while opening up generous meet\u2011and\u2011greet spaces for a city that prefers to walk inside to welcome family and friends.<\/p>\n The architecture \u2013 led by Gensler and HDR, in association with luis vidal + architects \u2013 doesn\u2019t hide its regional references: an undulating roof suggestive of rolling hills; columns branching like trees; fiber\u2011optic \u201cstars\u201d that glance off glass at night. What it does hide, by design, is the machinery of comfort. \u201cYou see the nature,\u201d Gaus says, \u201cand only when you look closer do you realize the technology is doing the work in the background.\u201d<\/p>\n Integrating today with yesterday \u2013 while never closing<\/p>\n Modernizing a live airport is not a matter of swapping parts. The new terminal was built \u201cseparate \u2011through\u2011construction,\u201d as Yelena Nelson, senior mechanical engineer, describes it, to preserve operations until the moment of carefully sequenced tie\u2011in. That meant temporary routes, scaffolding, and wayfinding choreographies that changed as the building neared the old concourse. \u201cThe challenge wasn\u2019t wiring old equipment to new,\u201d Nelson says. \u201cIt was delivering next to a live airport without breaking its rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n Phasing became the delivery mechanism: one package for everything underground \u2013 utilities, stormwater, and the remnants of the train infrastructure \u2013 and another for everything above. The connector bridge formed a new passage aligning the security exit with the existing concourse. \u201cLED walls, the bridge motif \u2013 it\u2019s a reveal that feels like Pittsburgh,\u201d says Mike Weleski, who led portions of the MEP and site integration. \u201cAll while the airport kept moving.\u201d<\/p>\n Behind the scenes, the team wrote a white paper for the airport authority on its building management system. Do they double down on the incumbent platform or open the market to competition? Matt Hochberger, the project lead, explains the calculus: keep the operator workflows and alarm philosophies that staff know, but design the new terminal\u2019s BMS to interoperate \u2013 not lock in. The owner chose open bid, preserving flexibility without sacrificing a seamless handoff to facilities. It\u2019s the kind of decision passengers never feel, but operators make every day.<\/p>\n Power that protects operations<\/p>\n Pittsburgh International Airport is powered by a 23\u2011megawatt microgrid \u2013 a blend of on\u2011site natural gas generation and solar \u2013 capable of operating independently from the regional grid. The new terminal had to integrate seamlessly into that system. \u201cWe tied in at medium voltage with new 3.5 kV switchboards, then stepped down to 480V for the building,\u201d says Jeremy Hall, associate electrical engineer. That strategy allowed the team to shrink the diesel generator to life\u2011safety loads \u2013 emergency lighting, egress, fire\/life safety \u2013 and to rely on the microgrid\u2019s redundancy for optional standby, cutting emissions and fuel risk.<\/p>\n Where the power system provides resilience, the controls framework ensures efficiency. The design incorporates daylight\u2011responsive dimming, occupancy and vacancy controls, and a full LED specification that cuts lighting power density to roughly 30 percent below ASHRAE code. The result is an automated, low\u2011waste operation that performs without demanding attention. It\u2019s engineering that works in the background \u2013 constantly optimizing, rarely seen.<\/p>\n Comfort engineered into the background<\/p>\n If the project has a signature technical move, it\u2019s displacement ventilation. In halls of this scale \u2013 soaring ceilings, long sightlines, and air volumes that would typically demand brute\u2011force conditioning \u2013 Buro Happold rethought the physics. Instead of pushing large quantities of air from high above, the team supplied conditioned air low and slow, allowing natural stratification to lift heat and contaminants clear of the occupied zone. <\/p>\n \u201cThe airflow isn\u2019t felt \u2013 no drafts,\u201d Hochberger says. \u201cYou\u2019re calmer in the place people are usually most anxious: baggage claim.\u201d <\/p>\n Those lofty ceilings, a defining architectural element of the new hall, were made possible precisely because the engineering retreated from them. By delivering air at the floor and letting the upper volume act as a quiet thermal buffer, the team avoided cluttering the roofline with the typical web of ducts, grilles, and mechanical hardware. The height could read as pure architecture \u2013 light, airy, unbroken.<\/p>\n Function followed form: diffusers are integrated into benches, walls, and carousel surrounds, preserving valuable floor\u2011to\u2011floor height and keeping the focus on the sweep of the roof instead of the machinery behind it. \u201cWe worked carefully with the design team to hide the big openings,\u201d Nelson adds. The result is a space that feels open and intuitive, while the engineering works invisibly in the background to keep it comfortable at every scale. <\/p>\n Modeling as risk management<\/p>\n The integration platform for all of this was BIM. \u201cWe modeled space by space with exact elevations,\u201d says Rachel Weaver, an electrical engineer who helped with BIM coordination. The point wasn\u2019t just clash detection; it was construction intent. Electrical conduits and feeders were pre\u2011cut from the model to minimize waste. On the plumbing side, the team used Revit to thread storm piping through the undulating structure \u2013 a challenge made more urgent when the plumbing group proposed a stormwater reuse system that hadn\u2019t been in the initial brief. \u201cYou have a roof this large,\u201d Weleski says. \u201cWhy not capture and treat a portion for the landscape terraces and reduce domestic water demand?\u201d The owner agreed.<\/p>\n A local project with global reach<\/p>\n The talent bench shifted as the program matured: early concept work drew on Buro Happold\u2019s global aviation experience, then moved through New York and Pittsburgh for design and construction administration. What never shifted was proximity. <\/p>\n \u201cWe were on site weekly,\u201d Gaus says. \u201cHalf the time it was faster to drive to the airport than to the office.\u201d Problems that might have lingered on emails resolved in thirty\u2011minute hallway meetings or impromptu field walks with the contractor and architect.<\/p>\n Jeremy Snyder is direct about why that mattered: \u201cIt\u2019s the airport\u2019s building. They have to operate it. We moved efficiently and treated the owner as part of the team making decisions on design.\u201d<\/p>\n What people will notice \u2013 and what they won\u2019t<\/p>\n Travelers will recognize the \u2018Pittsburgh-ness\u2019 of the new hall immediately: the lift of the roofline, the light from all sides, the constellations overhead. They\u2019ll also notice what\u2019s missing. The tram is gone; the walk is shorter; the signage reads clearly. Much of what makes that possible is deliberately invisible \u2013 air delivered where people are; power and data routed where they need to be; sensors adjusting light to the day \u2013 so the building can do more with less.<\/p>\n For the engineers who lived with it for years, the pride is more granular. \u201cWe had to keep a complex campus breathing while we changed a lung,\u201d Hochberger says, smiling at the metaphor. Weleski calls it a legacy project. \u201cYou don\u2019t build a new airport here every decade,\u201d he says. \u201cI came to work on this. I can\u2019t wait to fly out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, the terminal modernization reflects the spirit of the city it serves: a clarity of purpose, an economy of means, and an insistence on doing the hardest work out of view so the experience feels effortless. It is, as the team repeatedly noted, an airport for Pittsburgh, by Pittsburgh \u2013 engineered to carry the region forward.<\/p>\n For us, the measure of success wasn\u2019t just opening a new terminal \u2013 it was giving Pittsburgh an airport that feels effortless to use and resilient to operate. When engineering disappears into the experience, that\u2019s when we know we\u2019ve done our job.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Jeremy Snyder, US Aviation Director<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hear from the Buro Happold team on the engineering behind Pittsburgh International Airport\u2019s new landside terminal. When Pittsburgh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3855,39857,5603,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-124383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-airport","tag-airport-design","tag-aviation","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PIT-New-Terminal_Interior-02_Design-Credit-Gensler-HDR-in-association-with-luis-vidal-architects_Pho.jpeg\")
Image: Ema Peter.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PIT-New-Terminal_Exterior-5_Design-Credit-Gensler-HDR-in-association-with-luis-vidal-architects_Phot.jpeg\")
Image: Ema Peter.<\/p>\n![\"Aerial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Pittsburgh_01_Gensler-HDR-1024x683.jpg\")
Pittsburgh International Airport was once a hub for US Airways. Image: Gensler + HDR in association with luis vidal + architects.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PIT-New-Terminal_Interior-10_Design-Credit-Gensler-HDR-in-association-with-luis-vidal-architects_Pho.jpeg\")
Image: Ema Peter.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PIT-New-Terminal_Interior-07_Design-Credit-Gensler-HDR-in-association-with-luis-vidal-architects_Pho.jpeg\")
Image: Ema Peter.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PIT-New-Terminal_Exterior-6_Design-Credit-Gensler-HDR-in-association-with-luis-vidal-architects_Phot.jpeg\")
Image: Ema Peter.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PIT-New-Terminal_Interior-04_Design-Credit-Gensler-HDR-in-association-with-luis-vidal-architects_Pho.jpeg\")
Image: Ema Peter.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PIT-New-Terminal_Drone-3_Design-Credit-Gensler-HDR-in-association-with-luis-vidal-architects_Video-C.jpeg\")
Image: Wendell Weithers<\/p>\n