What Are Some Notable Projects by Arup?

Arup's project portfolio spans structural engineering, digital tools, urban design, and environmental restoration. Four projects stand out on its site as illustrations of that range: an AI-driven "digital twin" for river cleanup, modular sidewalk sheds in New York City, the completion of La Sagrada Família's structural design, and Little Island, a public park on Manhattan's waterfront. Each shows a different side of the firm — digital modeling, everyday urban infrastructure, long-running heritage work, and landscape design.

Restoring a polluted river with a digital twin

Arup describes building an AI "digital twin" for plastic pollution in one of the world's most polluted rivers. The tool is used to:

• Identify where pollution originates
• Develop interventions that stop waste from entering the river
• Target cleanup resources more effectively

The value here is less about the engineering artifact than the decision-making it supports — modeling a messy environmental problem so that cleanup effort goes where it has the most effect.

Reimagining New York City's sidewalk experience

Sidewalk sheds — the temporary covered structures over pedestrian walkways during construction — are a familiar, often unpleasant part of New York City streets. Arup's project involved innovative modular sidewalk shed designs intended to improve:

• Safety
• Accessibility
• The pedestrian experience across the city

This is a useful example of Arup applying design thinking to unglamorous, high-volume urban infrastructure rather than a single landmark building.

Completing La Sagrada Família

In 2014, with Gaudí's basilica roughly 60% complete, the Sagrada Família Foundation approached Arup to help with the remaining structural design. The project is notable for the constraints involved: extending the structural logic of a century-old, partially built design while meeting modern requirements.

If you want to understand Arup's structural engineering credentials, this is one of the clearest cases on its site — a long-horizon collaboration on a building whose completion has spanned generations.

Creating Little Island

Little Island is described as an urban oasis in New York City, created at a time when green space and open-air venues in crowded cities had become especially important for public health and wellbeing. The project demonstrates what Arup frames as the possible when landscape, structure, and public access are designed together.

What these projects have in common

Across all four, the pattern is the same: Arup positions itself as a consultancy that plans, designs, delivers, and maintains the built environment — from transportation and buildings to energy and water infrastructure — rather than a firm defined by one discipline.

Where to look next

Arup's site organizes this material under Our work, with individual project pages and articles on related topics such as decarbonization in hospitals, virtual design and construction (VDC), and maritime decarbonization. If your interest is a specific sector — structures, water, energy, or digital — browsing the projects section by theme will surface more relevant examples than the four highlighted here.