About the author ⁄ Marc Steyer, S.E.

Marc Steyer (m.steyer@tippingstructural.com) is a Principal, at Tipping Structural Engineers in Berkeley, CA.

A New Vision for an Aging Midrise Building

Renovation and Vertical Expansion Breathes New Life into 633 Folsom

Built in 1967, the original building at 633 Folsom Street in San Francisco was developed by The Swig Company as a modern office building for the telecommunications giant AT&T. Fast forward to the 2010s: AT&T had long since moved out of the space, and the aging midrise building was no longer attractive to tenants looking for a corporate home in San Francisco’s South of Market (SoMa) district. So instead of selling the outdated building or redeveloping the site with new construction, Swig saw an opportunity to give the building a facelift, nearly double its square footage and height, and make it the star of their portfolio. The vision for the new building included a vertical expansion of the existing structure wrapped in a striking new skin. To make this distinctive concept economically feasible required a dedicated design and construction team capable of an equally unique approach.

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Jul, 2022 By Andrew Jimenez, C.E., Gina Beretta, S.E. and Marc Steyer, S.E. In Feature Comments 1

FRP Column Retrofit for Mt. Zion Housing

Part 2

A recent seismic retrofit project provided an opportunity to test an interior concrete column retrofit with a three-sided, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) wrap with FRP through-anchors on the fourth side. The testing demonstrated the effectiveness of this application, which could be applied to columns or beams with deficient shear strength in situations where site conditions prevent access to one side of the member. Please refer to Part 1 (STRUCTURE, January 2022) for additional testing information.

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Feb, 2022 By Abby Enscoe, P.E., Marc Steyer, S.E., Aniket Borwankar, Mike Wesson, S.E., Ph.D., Lawrence Burkett, Joe Maffei, S.E., Ph.D. and Rachel Cohen, P.E. In Structural Performance Comments 0

Shear Strength Deficiencies in Concrete Columns

Part 1

Concrete buildings with vulnerable columns are some of the most dangerous structures when earthquakes occur. Since the 1970s, building codes have addressed the detailing of columns that are part of moment frames in high-seismic regions. Research for the Portland Cement Association [Blume et al., 1961] and subsequent studies in New Zealand established the need for close spacing of ties and a capacity design of frame members for shear strength sufficient to cause flexural yielding rather than undesirable shear failure.

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Jan, 2022 By Lawrence Burkett, Joe Maffei, S.E., Ph.D., Abby Enscoe, P.E., Marc Steyer, S.E., Mike Wesson, S.E., Ph.D. and Aniket Borwankar In Structural Performance Comments 0

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