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. …

Decades in conception and planning, the new Sanctuary for Sufism Reoriented in Walnut Creek, California, aims for a design life of centuries. The Sanctuary consists of a series of one-story domes above grade and a basement below (Figure 1). The largest dome is 78 feet in diameter and covers the column-free Prayer Hall, and smaller domes cover a variety of other spaces around the perimeter. A striking 38-foot tall base-isolated bronze sculpture reaches up from the basement to the oculus of one of the medium domes. …

California Pacific Medical Center

The California Pacific Medical Center is the San Francisco-based affiliate of the Sutter Health System. The November issue of STRUCTURE magazine included an article on the use of the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) framework on the project. This month, the topic shifts to the challenges of constructing the project in a congested, urban environment. …

The National Council of Structural Engineers Associations (NCSEA) is pleased to announce the following 2015 Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards. The awards were announced on the evening of October 2nd during the Awards Program at NCSEA’s 2015 Structural Engineering Summit in Las Vegas. The awards have been given annually since 1998 and highlight some of the best examples of structural ingenuity throughout the world. …

West Coast Seismic System Invades NYC

The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH), in association with the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), is implementing a major modernization program for the Bronx Psychiatric Center, including a new 180,000 square feet, 156-bed, Adult Behavioral Healthcare facility. …

Simple and Economical

The Language Academy of Sacramento elementary school wanted a small gymnasium with a modest price tag. To achieve that goal, the design team took inspiration from two very different types of optimized designs: typical residential construction and pre-engineered metal buildings. …

Cold-Formed Steel Framing (CFSF) offers incredible flexibility, design creativity, and efficient and effective construction technologies when comparing options for use in design and construction of commercial, institutional, residential, and thematic/entertainment structures. Combined with the time-tested reliability of hot-dipped galvanized steel in framing systems, architects and engineers can feel confident that CFSF designs are valid choices when it comes to strength, stability, and cost effectiveness. …