Repair of corroded steel supports caused by a leaking cooling tower on an aging building’s roof can be incredibly challenging for structural engineers. A case study of rooftop cooling tower support structure repairs highlights common obstacles and solutions for these rising problems. …
Cable-stayed structures are the youngest, fastest-developing, and most promising bridge systems. …
The recently constructed Beehive Bridge in New Britain, Connecticut, and winner of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Engineering Excellence National Merit Award, is a testament to the power of structures to connect people and connect to people. The Beehive Bridge reconnects long-divided neighborhoods, encourages pedestrian use, and represents its community through its singular design (Figure 1). …
On March 15, 2018, a pedestrian concrete truss bridge in Miami, FL, collapsed during construction. The span that collapsed had been designed as a concrete truss bridge with prestressed members. Figure 1 shows the bridge site before and after the collapse of the main span. The collapse caused multiple fatalities and raised serious concerns regarding the design and construction of the bridge, including the emerging concept of Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC). …
Envisioned by developer Atlas Capital Group and design architect Rios Clementi Hale Studios, ROW DTLA reinvigorates the vast and historic Alameda Square warehouse and industrial building complex. The project updated the area into a vibrant district of offices, retail, and restaurants, and provides a network of public spaces for live music, entertainment, and festivals in Downtown Los Angeles. …
Given the high cost of rent in the surrounding community and a campus housing capacity of 55 percent of its graduate student population, Stanford University needed to increase its graduate student housing. The goal was to not only provide better housing options for its current students but also continue to attract the best students from around the world. The Escondido Village Graduate Residences (EVGR) at Stanford University adds more than 1,300 units and 2,400 beds, increasing Stanford’s on-campus graduate housing capacity to 75 percent of its graduate student population. …
The District Office is a 90,000 square foot, six-story building in Portland, Oregon. System planning and attention to constructability resulted in the use of mass timber in this successful project. …
The Conrad Washington, DC, the capstone building for the CityCenterDC development, presented several unusual challenges to the design and construction team. The combination of a tight complicated site, the need for large column-free ballrooms, and a below-grade loading dock under the hotel tower compelled the team to selectively use structural steel in a predominantly concrete structure to solve design challenges. …
Repurposed shipping containers have taken root within the construction industry. What were once utilitarian boxes full of cargo out at sea are now seen across the United States and around the world as offices, living spaces, retail spaces, and multi-unit structures. The use of these steel cargo boxes as building materials continues to grow rapidly and, to keep up, structural engineers and the construction industry at large must learn to build these container-based structures with safety in mind. …
Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 hurricane, made landfall along the Florida Panhandle on October 10, 2018, with a direct hit between Tyndall Air Force Base and the coastal City of Mexico Beach, leaving a trail of destruction in its path. The damage extended over sixty miles east and west of the eyewall. The areas affected the most experienced sustained winds of 161 miles per hour (mph), a minimum pressure of 919 millibars (mb), and a storm surge reaching 19 feet above sea level with additional wave action well over this elevation. Hurricane Michael was “directly responsible for 16 deaths and about $25 billion in damage in the United States,” according to a report prepared on May 17, 2019, by the National Hurricane Center. …