Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport, named after the 27th Governor of Texas, was established in 1927 as a private airfield, with a main airport passenger terminal added in the 1950’s. Hobby Airport was the primary commercial airport for the city until a new Houston Intercontinental Airport opened in 1969. After that, Hobby continued as Houston’s secondary airport for domestic corporate and private airline service. …
Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Solves Seismic Design Challenges
Bellevue, Washington continues to blossom into a vibrant, world class city. The Lincoln Square Expansion (LSE) broke ground in downtown Bellevue in June 2014 and, when complete in 2017, will add two 450-foot towers, a four level retail podium, and six levels of subterranean parking to Bellevue’s urban core. …
Making a Historic Monument Shine
The renovation of a building offers an opportunity to rejuvenate a space and ensure the preservation and conservation of its history. The Masonic Temple in Glendale, California, once stood as the tallest building on Brand Boulevard and has housed six different Masonic organizations since its opening in January 1929 (Figure 1). …
The Means to the End
In 2007, Sutter Health brought together its Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) team to produce its new San Francisco flagship hospital, California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC). At the first team meeting, Sutter challenged the IPD team, consisting of SmithGroupJJR, the design sub-consultants, the general contractor, HerreroBoldt and its major subcontractors, to bring innovation to the project to provide the best hospital possible within the Sutter-established budget. …
With a robust 2015 behind them, companies involved in steel construction look forward to an even stronger 2016.
“Business is strong, and 2015 was another record-breaking year for SidePlate, both in number of new projects and overall contract value,” says Jason Hoover, Eastern Regional Business Manager, Industry Outreach Executive for SidePlate Systems, Inc. “To keep up, we’re currently hiring engineers for our main office in California and a few other positions across the country.” …
Frida Restaurant in Torrance, California
One of the most satisfying aspects of being a structural engineer is to see your project constructed. Even more satisfying is knowing you contributed to making something unique, creative, and aesthetically pleasing to society. Inspiration and gratification are rare in any professional endeavor, and the author is pleased to be part of the team that has made this project a reality. …
The crowning achievement on the Wilshire Grand project will be the Crown Sail and Spire that set atop the roof of the building. By any measure the crown sail and spire are a building unto themselves.
Typically, engineers place structures over rigid bases that are 10x stiffer than the structure above. This allows the structure to be designed as if on a rigid base. With the Wilshire Grand project, engineers set a stiff structure on top of a flexible one. This resulted in a sail and spire with very high seismic design requirements from upper mode effects produced by the supporting 73-story building. …
Supporting world’s largest LED billboard installation at the crossroads of the world required quick coordination and immediate solutions to conflicts.
The iconic Marriott Marquis hotel, located at the center of Times Square, was recently renovated to display the world’s largest high-definition LED billboard (Figure 1). At five stories tall, this gigantic screen spans the entire width of the building (a full city block, from West 45th Street to West 46th Street on Broadway), wrapping partway around its sides. …
All wood. Mid-rise. Mixed use.
Boise, Idaho has been on numerous “Best of …” lists. This includes number four of “Best Cities to Live In” by Livability.com, number three for “Best River Town in America” by Outside Magazine, “The Best Cities for Men” by Men’s Health Magazine, and the lists go on. To capitalize on this trending city, developer and design architect Glenn Levie conceptualized and developed “The 951” building just steps from the epicenter of downtown Boise. His vision for the structure was to accommodate a unique land layout with a mixed-use space – all under one roof. …
A 22,000-square-foot vertical expansion is currently under construction at the existing Carey Building located at 314-320 East State Street, Ithaca, NY. The mixed-use building, owned by Travis/Hyde Properties of Ithaca, is being expanded to accommodate new commercial space and residential apartments while maintaining the current first floor retail space. The expansion involves the addition of five stories stacked above an existing two-story reinforced concrete structure originally constructed in 1922. …