The City Creek Center’s masonry façade is an example of a structural engineering project that used performance-based-design to improve upon conventional, mundane brick façade systems. Located in Salt Lake City, Utah, the project site encompasses 23 acres of land representing two large city blocks. It contains four residential buildings with 535 units, three office buildings, and 700,000 square feet of retail space. A creek runs through the site, thus the name. The exterior walls of the project are brick, precast concrete, and glass.
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Author Archives : John G. Tawresey, S.E., F.SEI, Dist.M.ASCE
John G. Tawresey is a retired CFO of KPFF Consulting Engineers in Seattle, WA. He is a past president of The Masonry Society, past editor of the Masonry Society Journal, past president of the Structural Engineers Risk Management Council (SERMC), past president of the Structural Engineering Institute of ASCE, and a current member of the TMS 402/602 Main Committee. He is a member of the National Technical Programs Committee for SEI and an adjunct professor at the University of Washington. (johntaw@aol.com)
It was a beautiful day in Seattle, with the bluest skies you have ever seen. On that day, I was at my construction site, waiting to pour the first building foundation. I retired in 2013 and converted my assets into constructing seven rental units. After 40 years of practicing structural engineering, I was confident that I could be my own general contractor. It should be easy on a small project. …
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Structural Engineering is a great profession. Every day structural engineers engage in something new, making visions into reality, visions often created by talented people many of whom are architects. Their contribution to society, while mostly hidden from the general public, cannot be discounted. Seldom do their structures fail. It is a great profession. …
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This is a story about designing brick masonry curtainwalls. It is a story because the events did not all occur on the same project. They all happened, just on different projects.
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For context and introduction, the author’s education is in solid mechanics followed by an early career in aerospace designing airplanes. Leaving the aerospace industry to design buildings wasn’t easy. …