Remote Control Room Upgrade
- Oil & Gas
- South Asia
We have designed more than 100 control buildings and rooms that have been built over the last 30 years for clients such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Fluor, and Honeywell. We integrate interior design, human factors engineering and architecture to produce the world’s safest and most productive control buildings for the petrochemical industry, oil refineries, pipeline control, mining, transportation, and utilities. We have designed everything from control center campuses spanning a hundred acres in British Columbia to top-secret military facilities for the U.S. Air Force. These buildings offer state-of-the-art security and are designed to both prevent and withstand the worst disasters imaginable.
But that only begins to tell the story.
Buildings have an identity, for better or worse. Unless one is a professional architect, this identity is usually appreciated on a subconscious level. People know instinctively if a space is good, if it’s appropriate and fitting. They can feel if the lighting, shapes and colors come together in a way that is both functional and harmonious. They rarely want to hear about geometry, proportion, formalism, symmetry, composition or the coordination of materials. They just want it to be right. And that’s our job at BAW Architecture—to get it right the first time.
The history of getting it right
The Roman architect Vitruvius described the foundational principles of architecture in the 1st century BC. A good building, he wrote, must satisfy three principles: firmitas, utilitas and venustas. For Vitruvius, a good building must have:
- Durability – a building should stand up robustly and endure over time.
- Utility – it should be suitable for the purposes for which it is used.
- Beauty – it should be aesthetically pleasing.
At BAW these principles inform all of our control building architecture. And, if we may be so bold, we will add our own spin. Our control buildings must have:
- Utility – function always leads, forms always follows.
- Durability – a building must be robust—even blast-resistant—and endure over time.
- Beauty – the end result is beautiful, but that does not cost extra.
- Value – it must be economical while being of high quality.
- Results – it must be safe, productive and profitable.
Operations Manager
Thank you for the very productive visit this past week. I appreciated the time and effort you and your staff put into this past week’s review. It was highly successful in my view. I am so pleased that (we) have you as our architect on this control center. It is a great looking building, laid out perfectly. I can’t wait to see the real thing.
Right means fit for purpose
Our experience in control building architecture guides us in getting the right “amount” of building for each client. It’s important to get not only the substance and functionality right, but also the image. In other words, the end result, whether full operations campus or industrial control room, should not be a bunker, nor should it look gold-plated. Appropriate value is key in both reality and in perception. For example, if dignitaries visit, everyone wants a building they can be proud of, but also be assured that money was not wasted. Nobody wants a WWI-era bunker, but industrial control room design doesn’t need to look like the Taj Mahal either. BAW understands this balance, and we take time to understand each client, to get it right.
The end goal—and result—is return on investment for you, the client. Read more on the realities of ROI in control building architecture and how BAW achieves this in a published article written by BAW founder Brad Adams Walker. Request the full article.
Learn more about why BAW Architecture is the leader in 24/7 mission-critical control building design, or contact us to start a conversation.
Control building architecture FAQs
How does BAW integrate blast-resistant or security design into a control building?
BAW considers protective architecture (blast-resistance, EMP shielding, CIP compliance) as part of the building design from the start, not as an afterthought—ensuring the facility remains operational under abnormal or hostile conditions.
At what phase should the front-end engineering for a control building begin and why?
Front-end engineering should begin early in the schematic design phase so that site layout, structural loads, utilities, redundancy and architectural integration are defined before detailed systems are locked in.
What special considerations apply to facility siting for a mission-critical control building?
Siting must account for terrain, access (both personnel and equipment), separation from hazards, security buffer zones, utilities reliability, and future expansion—all of which impact cost, operations and risk.
How does 3-D visualization support the design of a control building?
3-D modeling enables stakeholders—operators, maintenance, safety, facility manager—to visualize the building in context, identify spatial conflicts or workflow bottlenecks, and validate architectural, structural and human-factors decisions before construction.
Can BAW’s control building architecture services apply to existing buildings, or are they only for new builds?
BAW’s methods can be applied in renovation or repurposing projects by assessing the existing facility’s structural capacity, seismic/blast resilience, systems compatibility and operator workflow, then designing upgrades or additions accordingly.
Contact us to start a conversation.
