Ten Years After the Haiti Earthquake: How Building Disaster-Resilient Structures Can Lift a Nation
Image: Port-au-Prince, Haiti, suffered massive destruction from an earthquake in 2010. By Kit Miyamoto, Ph.D., S.E., and Lucienne Cross In 20 years of responding to earthquakes as a structural engineer, I have never seen destruction such as I witnessed in Haiti a decade ago. Traveling through the wreckage of Port-au-Prince just days after the earthquake of Jan. 12, 2010, I saw a hellish landscape: people digging through concrete for missing family, twisted metal, cars squashe...
Executive Corner: Lost Value in M&A: A New Way to Create and Capture Value
Buying or selling a firm creates risk and opportunity for both buyers and sellers. Up to 30 percent of a firm’s potential value is lost during and after the typical acquisition. For those selling, they’re losing millions in potential rewards for their efforts building a firm. For buyers, their return on investment can evaporate almost instantly. For this installment of “Executive Corner,” we explore how innovative firms are gaining new insights to maximize value when buying, selling or prepar...
Deliberate Clashing in Urban Infill Projects
A partial 3D axonometric section shows the representation of an existing railyard with a structural platform built around it as well as the potential massing of a building above. All geometry was created within either AutoCAD or Revit and then imported into Navisworks. As urban populations grow and demand for housing increases, vacant or underutilized land is at a premium, leading to a rise in urban infill projects. Whenever the needs of a dense population change drastically in a shor...
Thoughts from Engineers: The Food Industry Has a Major Impact on Water Resources
Cheesemaking is a bonafide American industry that generates some $50 billion in revenue every year. In the regions of New York where dairy farms dominate, small-town communities and cheese production have coexisted peacefully through the years. A longtime American favorite, Philadelphia Cream Cheese has been produced in Lowville, N.Y., for nearly 40 years. A new plant became operational in 2017 and expanded Kraft Heinz’s (parent company of Philadelphia Cream Cheese) production line to also in...
It’s the Thought That Counts: Simple Tools (Like Hand Sketches) Can Help Create Better Designs
Publisher’s Note: I met structural engineer Clark Baurer when I served as a juror for the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois’ (SEAOI) Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards Competition—his elegant and innovative structural renovation of Chicago’s Theater on the Lake won the Lavicka Award for Small Firm/Small Project up to $2 million. The project hit a sweet spot for me: repurposing an old structure as well as a complicated structural challenge. Clark’s use of hand drawings was an...
From the Editor: Spring’s Arrival Leads to Thoughts of Unfrozen Infrastructure
As I write this in early March, we’re experiencing sunny, warm days in the Midwest. We had a warmer-than-average winter with less snow than usual. Spring is the time when we witness the change from gray and white to blue and green. The sky clears itself of the ever-present cloud cover and melts the snow of winter, giving way to blue above and green growth at ground level. If this sounds a bit poetic, it’s because I’m preparing myself for the companion season of road construction and farm-e...
Specification Section: 2020 Steel Product and Design/Fabrication Software Guide
This guide briefly showcases the latest Steel Product and Design/Fabrication Software used by civil and structural engineers throughout the industry. If your company should have been included in the guide, let us know by emailing [email protected], and we’ll add it online. American Institute of Steel Construction The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), headquartered in Chicago, is a non-partisan, not-for-profit technical institute and trade association establ...
Project Management Insights: Managing Remote Teams (Or During a Pandemic)
Depending on where you live and work, there may be a stay-in-place order recently issued by your state or local government. Your firm or office building manager may have closed facilities out of abundance of caution. Whatever the situation, you are more than likely now working from home. Since construction is considered an essential service in many states, projects are moving forward; as are most in the design phase. A project manager develops some specific and unique skills to be successful,...
Infrastructure Outlook: Cloud-Based CMT Makes Social Distancing and Remote Work Possible
The majority of U.S. states consider construction and building material suppliers essential. This means many testing labs are still open. It has also created two problems for those in the industry: How do you follow CDC social distancing guidelines at a busy testing lab? And how do stakeholders access test results from home to keep business moving? Moving some or all the CMT workflow to a cloud-based platform can help answer both of these questions – and fast. Practical Social Distancing in t...
Engineered Solutions: Rising to the Challenge of Multi-Story Construction
Sponsored by: New Millennium Building Systems Long-Span Composite Floor Systems Meet the Various Demands of Low-Rise and Mid-Rise Structures Multi-story construction projects often introduce multiple challenges. Whether it’s new construction or a renovation, choosing the right long-span composite floor system can solve a wide range of demands typical of mid- to high-rise multi-story projects. A long-span composite deck floor system supports the cantilevered floors of a 12-story...
Video: Crashes Drop Measurably After Rural Road Safety Improvement Project on US 521 in Lancaster County
AdventHealth Weaverville Hospital
June Issue 2026
.jpg?width=225)