Structural Tests and Inspections Panel Discussion

A panel discussion from all points of view on Special Tests and Inspections. Panel members include:

• Rimas Veitas (Veitas and Veitas, representing a medium sized firm)
• Jim DeStefano (DeStefano Associates, representing an SE firm in Connecticut, implementing IBC 2003)
• Mysore Ravindra (LeMessurier Associates, representing a large/specialty SE firm)
• Richard Croswell (Symmes Maini & McKee Associates, representing a large multi-disciplinary firm)
• Ed LeNormand (Chapin Associates representing a small SE firm)
• Terry Louderback (Sousa True & Partners representing an additional perspective from a medium size SE firm)

New England SEA's and NCSEA Boards to meet

The NCSEA Board will be in Boston for their executive meeting. While in Boston, the New England SEA boards will meet with the NCSEA Board to brainstorm on ways to strengthen the Member Organizations as well as discuss what lessons have been learned by one SEA that can help another SEA. Light refreshments will be provided.

NCSEA Board of Directors - General Session

NCSEA Board of Directors to discuss Board related activities. Open to interested Delegates/Board Members from the New England member organizations. One topic of discussion will be the Fourth Summit on Separate Structural Licensing (July 18, 2008). Lunch will be provided.

NCSEA has been inviting local SEA Board Members to their General Sessions for the past few years so the local SEA's are more aware of what the NCSEA BoD is doing. NCSEA also invites the President or Executive Director of SEI and CASE to attend. If they do so, they are given the privilege of the floor to present brief reports on the activities of their organizations. This allows the three national organizations to work cooperatively with each other.

Annual Meeting - Engineering-Driven Architecture - June 12, 2008

This dinner meeting was held at the MIT Faculty Club in Cambridge.

Glenn Bell presented 'Engineering-Driven Architecture'. Three current trends present opportunities for architecture-engineering teams to realize their creative potential through integration of new building technologies. First, technological advances allow more sophisticated engineering considerations in design and construction. Software, modeling, and automation enable us to conceive and analyze ever-more complex shapes and systems; permit advancements in energy conservation and indoor environment; and enable the construction of complex geometries and non-repeating elements. Second, rising energy costs and shrinking energy resources, combined with greater awareness of environmental responsibility, mean that we must build buildings that are more resource-efficient in construction and operation. Third, today’s society is technologically focused. Expressing technological themes explicitly in our architecture is an appealing concept for our times.

There are significant obstacles to these opportunities, however. Our processes for design and construction are highly fractured. Architecture, engineering, and construction are increasingly viewed as commodities.

Yet there are glimmers of hope. Architects, engineers, and constructors who collaborate on specialized building systems like fabric structures, structural glass, and bioclimate double curtain walls have produced new, technologically advanced systems with spectacular results. In bringing engineering-driven architecture more mainstream we can learn much from their success. This talk will examine the challenges to technologically-driven architecture and discuss the leadership needed to overcome them.

Glenn R. Bell is CEO of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. Glenn joined SGH in 1974 and served as a design engineer working closely with architects to develop structures such as SpaceShip Earth, the geodesic dome at Walt Disney World Epcot Center, and Steven Holl’s MIT Simmons Hall. He was a principal investigator for the investigation of the walkway collapse at the Hyatt Regency, Kansas City, and part of the SGH team that performed a progressive collapse analysis of the World Trade Center Twin Towers for the National Institute of Science and Technology. He has led the company as CEO since 1995.

Annual Meeting - T.R. Higgins Award Lecture - June 6, 2007

This dinner meeting was held at the MIT Faculty Club in Cambridge. SEAMass was one of the 6 privaledged areas in the US to have the 2007 T.R. Higgins Recipient, Mr. R. Shankar Nair, present his award winning paper 'Stability and Analysis Provisions of the 2005 AISC Specification for Steel Buildings.'

In a career that has focused on structural engineering for large architectural and civil engineering projects, Nair has designed many major bridges, including structures for Interstate highways over the Mississippi River, and the structural systems of many skyscrapers.

His building projects include the Harborside Hyatt Conference Center and Hotel in Boston, an early example of low floor-to-floor height steel construction and 900 North Michigan in Chicago, where the lower 30 levels are framed in steel and the upper 40 levels in concrete. His bridge designs included the longest tied arch in the world and the longest-span steel stringer structure in America. Active as a researcher and lecturer, Nair has published numerous technical papers and has held positions of leadership in many professional societies and committees, including the chairmanship of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. He is a member of the AISC Specification Committee, National Academy of Engineering, and Chicago Committee on High-Rise Buildings. He has previously received the AISC Lifetime Achievement Award, the ASCE George Winter Award, and the SEAOI John F. Parmer Award.

Mr. Nair’s describes clearly and concisely options available for dealing with stability and second order analysis as found in the 2005 AISC Specification for Structural Steel Buildings. It highlights the relationship between the two simplified methods available in the body of the Specification and the detailed Direct Analysis Method presented in the Specification Appendix. The paper shows the logical progression of methods from the one applicable to the most general structure to those that are applicable to the more typical building structures and provides an introduction to these approaches.

The meeting concluded with SEAMass business. Ms. Cindy Chabot, the current president of SEAMass presented where the organization will go from here and the leadership that is required to maintain SEAMass.Download the powerpoint presentation.

Panel Discussion on Proposed Chapter 34 (Existing Buildings) - April 25, 2007

This dinner meeting at the Henderson House in Weston - an historic structure of its own right - presented 6 'test drives' of the use of the proposed Chapter 34 of the 7th Edition of Massachusetts State Building Code and compared it with the existing Chapter 34 of the current 6th Edition of the code. This Powerpoint presentation printout will provide you a flavor of the discussions. A few of the tests demonstrated the significance of wind loads on existing buildings in the new code. High rises, in particular, may take a particular beating; in light of this, the code may require additional work to fairly assess existing structures.

The location of this meeting is new to most of us; most agreed that the Henderson House was a great place for a dinner meeting. The din of discussions during dinner was deafening as structural engineers relayed their experiences to others sitting next to them at their table. The meeting ended with a call to structural engineers to help provide input on the proposed Chapter 34. Rubin Zallen stated that there may be a hearing on the proposed code in November this year. Those wishing to provide input to the 'test drive' should contact Richard Croswell.

You may review the proposed revisions for Chapter 34: Download proposed Chapter 34 provisions. You will also need the proposed Chapter 16; Download proposed Chapter 16

Notes:

- Table 1610.4, found at the end of Chapter 16, provides the various design parameters for seismic, wind, and snow for each city and town in the State.

- The seismic provisions are not yet included in Chapter 16; however, they are based on ASCE 7-02. Therefore, follow ASCE 7-02, except where material requirements are cited follow the proposed Chapters 19, 21, 22, and 23 on the same web page as Chapter 16.

Bracing Design for Stability: Columns & Frames - November 1, 2006

This all-day seminar brought to SEAMass by NCSEA and SSRC included Ted GalambosProfessor Emeritus of Structural Engineering in the CE Dept. at University of Minnesota and Perry Green, Technical Director of the Steel Joist Institute.

Topics included an introduction to stability (Ted), column stability (Perry), frame stability - alignment chart and modifications (Ted) and frame stability - P-delta method and FAQs. The combination of Ted's scientific explanations combined with Perry's practical applications of simplified analysis for quick checks provided a practical knowledge that all attendees could take back with them.

First Meeting - September 21, 2006

SEAMass' First Meeting was held at the Holiday Inn in Newton. The meeting topic included the new Massachusetts State Building code revisions. Reference material from that meeting is provided the Code Resources section of the website.

The meeting was attended by over 70 people and provided the 1st ever opportunity for new SEAMass members and would-be SEAMass members to meet and discuss technical issues for structural engineers.