Gary Haney

Gary Paul Haney (born April 16, 1955) RIBA, FAIA is an American-born international architect and design partner at the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Haney is a pioneer designer of supertall buildings and is known primarily for the design of several acclaimed tall and supertall buildings around the world, most notably the 412-meter Al Hamra Tower in Kuwait City. Time magazine named the structure one of the 50 best inventions of the year in 2011.

Recent designs by Haney include the BBVA Bancomer Operations Center, International Gem Tower, Baccarat Hotel and Residences, Al Sharq Tower, and the Al Rajhi Bank Headquarters. He is also known for significant civic and government buildings such as the FBI Metropolitan Field Headquarters, International Monetary Fund Headquarters, and the Ottawa Embassy.

Haney's approach draws heavily on environmental modeling techniques, deep materials research, and advanced building information modeling (BIM) technologies. His design and research work has contributed to significant breakthroughs in tall building efficiency and materials use. Haney also serves as an educator, lectures frequently, and is the current chair of the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

Haney was born in Middletown, OH. He has said that his father, a building inspector in southern Ohio, often took him to job sites, and that the experience proved formative for his professional ambitions. Haney enrolled in Miami University, Oxford, OH, to pursue a career in Architecture. He studied abroad extensively during his undergrad years in Mexico, Luxembourg, London, and other places in Europe.

Still in the midst of his undergraduate work, Haney interned with architect Richard McCommons. During that year he designed and helped construct a private residence over the summer. He credits that experience as having taught him "the connection between what I was drawing and the actual three dimensional act of construction."

After receiving his Bachelor of Environmental Design from Miami University, Haney took a position with the then newly formed firm Alesia & Crewell and, as their first employee, took part in a number of their early projects. He went on to study at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, participating in studios with Michael McKinnell and Gerhard Kallmann. Haney earned his Master of Architecture, in 1981.

Haney left Harvard with the intention of being an academic, but after working for a couple years for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, he decided he needed to acquire more applied experience, which led him to SOM in 1984.

He began his years at SOM as a junior designer, became a registered architect in 1987, and worked his way up to design partner in 1996. Two of his early years with the firm were spent in the technical department creating blueprints and visiting construction sites. He has since gone on to work in the DC, London, and New York branches of SOM where, for the last fifteen years, he has served on an executive committee helping to steer business operations and strategy.

Academically, Haney has provided critiques as an architectural studio juror for Catholic University, Columbia, Pratt, North Carolina State, and Florida A&M. With the assistance of a number of his students while leading a graduate seminar at Northeastern University, Haney published an influential book on efficiency and tall building design in 2013.

Alhamra Tower

Tall and supertall Buildings

Al Hamra Tower

Also known as Al Hamra Firdous Tower Bank Headquarters, Al Hamra Tower is an example of Haney and his team's use of advanced new building information modeling (BIM) technologies. Completed in 2011, the building consists of 77 floors and, at 412 meters (1,351 ft), the tower stands as the tallest building in Kuwait.

The visual signature of the building's design is the wrapped vision glass facades on the east, north, and west. The unique geometry was utilized both for aesthetic consideration and to help reduce the amount of reflective surface area on the south facade, an area which would be exposed to the most intense solar radiation in a region where temperatures can easily exceed 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Other key features include: flared walls reaching from the southwest and southeast corners of the core that span the entire height of the tower; a column-free 24-meter-tall lobby; and brushed Jura limestone on the south facade.

Other notable tall building projects underway, completed, or design-stage submissions by Haney are the Manhattan West Development, Zhong Hong Tower, Shum Yip Upperhills, Longgang Tian’an Cyber Park, International Gem Tower, Baccarat Hotel and Residences, New York, Al Rajhi Bank Headquarters, Al Sharq Tower, and several others. (For a comprehensive list see below.)

Civic and government buildings

In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, Haney's redesign of the Ottawa Embassy impacted government architecture in the years following. Other work includes: the FBI Metropolitan Field Headquarters; International Monetary Fund Headquarters; United States Census Bureau Headquarters; a renovation and expansion of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History; the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; and several others.

Ottawa Embassy

The United States Embassy in Ottawa, Canada as seen from the Byward Market, 2007

The United States Embassy in Ottawa, Ontario, was Haney's first notable project as chief architect. Haney and his mentor David Childs, had to completely redesign a previous version of the building after the Oklahoma City bombing forced them to add deeper security into the structure. After these changes, the building's glazed facade was changed to a more solid composition. According to architecture critic, Benjamin Forgey, Haney and Childs managed to build the structure "like a bunker, without making it look like one," despite some of the walls being four feet thick. President Clinton dedicated the $40 million project in October 1999.

U.S. Census Bureau Headquarters

Census Bureau Headquarters, Suitland, Maryland, 2007

Officially opening in 2007, the new U.S. Census Bureau Headquarters in Suitland, Maryland, was designed by Haney and a team at SOM to accommodate a population of employees that fluctuates widely due to the periodic nature of the census. Essentially two buildings hewn from a central mass, the site had a limitation of eight stories due to the sensitive nature of the area. It is 1,200 meters (3,937 feet) long and had to be constructed around operational structures.

The exterior of the building is marked by its window-shading elements called brise soleils. The facade consists of laminated wood that makes it look like one is in the woods from the inside of the building.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Renovation

Sometimes referred to as "America's attic," Haney led the $85 million renovation of the museum's five-story atrium. A highly trafficked site, the museum had nearly 3 million visitors in 2005, the year before it was closed for renewal. A response to the building commission's desire for increased light and centrality of the original star-spangled banner, the resulting 300,000 square feet were re-organized around the flag hall. The renovated museum reopened to the public in November 2008.

Tall buildings

Government

Other