Ramon Gilsanz, P.E., S.E., F.SEI, is founding partner of Gilsanz Murray Steficek and project manager for Avalon West Chelsea. He currently serves as Chair of the New York City Department of Buildings’ Structural Technical Committee and Chair of the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York Metropolitan Section Structural Code Committee. Ramon can be reached at ramon.gilsanz@gmsllp.com.
A landmarked, 33-story steel moment frame building, 75 Rockefeller Plaza bookends the north end of Rockefeller Center. The building was originally constructed in 1947 for John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company and features the limestone and cast aluminum façade (Figure 1) that is emblematic of Rockefeller Center. …
Fast-paced construction within a dense urban environment like New York City has several distinctive rationales, approaches, constraints, and requirements that necessitate careful coordination. The fundamental principle that drives the need for speed in construction is economic. …
Seismologists, earthquake engineers and seismic code experts understand the science of earth that moves and the structures built on it, but many of the concepts involved may be too abstract for architects, builders and the public. This article offers an analogy to help explain seismic design and presents three different construction techniques used in Chile, Japan and the United States that counter an earthquake’s effects. …
Two major earthquakes hit the Cephalonia Island of Greece on January 26th and February 3rd of 2014, with magnitudes of M = 6.0 and 6.1. For comparison, the recent South Napa earthquake of August 24, 2014 had M = 6.0 (EERI, 2014) and the Northridge earthquake of 1994, which has been used in development of seismic codes, had M = 6.7 (NCEER, 1994). …