Some time ago, one of our project engineers came to my office late in the day and asked if I had a minute to talk about something. “Sure,” I said, and he came in and quietly closed the door behind him. Now, I’ve learned that when someone wants to talk to you and then closes the door, whatever is coming is probably not good. So I took a deep breath and braced myself… …
Monthly Archives : January 2016
Jon Schmidt, and the past and present editorial board, did an excellent job of building STRUCTURE magazine into a high-quality, sought-after publication. Under Jon’s leadership and the talent and commitment of the editorial board, STRUCTURE magazine has become a widely-read and well-respected publication. The profession owes Jon, those who served with him, and those who have contributed content to the magazine, our sincere appreciation. …
Historically, reinforced concrete has been thought of as very forgiving when it comes to the amount of time the material performs in service. Although there is a lot of truth to this, the environment inevitably can shorten reinforced concrete’s life expectancy, resulting in costly repairs and disruption to everyday life. …
Or, When Thin is a Not a Win-Win
Recently, Pennoni Associates was involved in the investigation and assessment of several existing parking garages constructed with precast, prestressed thin slabs. In this type of structural system, precast planks function as stay-in-place formwork and become a part of an overall composite slab once a field-cast topping is placed and the shoring is removed. …
The Value Proposition
I remember my first day of work as a young engineer like it was yesterday. The firm where I was starting my career was ceremoniously ditching the teletype machine that had provided them with computing power from a timeshared computer in a remote office building, in downtown Charlotte, NC, in favor of a desktop computer – a Wang SVP. …
This article is a two part series which discusses special inspection provisions for wood construction in the 2015 International Building Code (Part 1) and perspectives from several States (based on the 2012 International Building Code) on suggested handling of special inspections regionally (Part 2). …
Strong Dollar May Impact Overseas Projects
In a solid market for foundation services, companies are ramping up new products and services to keep pace with demand.
“Because foundations are the first step in construction, this industry tends to experience trends a little bit before the rest of the construction market. By analyzing economic trends, I suspect we’ll continue to see the American market recover and yield good results for the foundation industry,” says Gina Beim, Senior Consulting Engineer and Marketing Director at Pile Dynamics, Inc. …
The Florida Hospital for Women is located on the main campus of Florida Hospital South in Orlando, FL. It is a 12-story, 430,000 square-foot facility dedicated to the health and well-being of women and new born children, with a 322-bed tower. Opened in December 2015, the facility includes 14 labor and delivery suites, 13 operating rooms for obstetric and women’s services, 72 postpartum care beds, mother-baby beds, high-risk beds and 80 neonatal intensive beds. The operating rooms accommodate robotic surgeries for obstetrics, including the da Vinci Surgical System for robotic minimally invasive surgery. …
The Courthouse Square complex, located in the heart of Salem, Oregon, is owned by Salem-Keizer Transit and Marion County. The complex occupies an entire city block and consists of three structurally independent, architecturally contiguous structures; a five-story office building, a transit mall, and a future development site (North Block). An existing belowground parking facility extends under the three structures and occupies the entire block. The complex was first opened to the public in September 2000. …
A Case Study
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District East Campus Operations Center (SMUD ECOC) is a six building, 350,000 square foot facility on a 51 acre site in Sacramento, California that was completed in May 2013. …