Success or Failure: A Tale of Two Projects
Twenty city blocks and a ten year period separated two projects of similar purposes, but with completely different endings. The first one, the Delancey Street Project, took place in 1984...
Engineering Mechanics
This proceedings contains keynote and summary papers presented at the 11th ASCE Engineering Mechanics Conference held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 20-22, 1996. The keynote papers address...
Scour Power
New prediction methods consistently calculate scour around bridge piers allowing engineers to better tailor pier design in rock and consolidated material. The leading cause of bridge failure...
Pipeline Crossings
Pipeline Crossings 1996
This proceedings,
Quake Proofing a Palace
A $36.5 million renovation of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor included a two-level underground expansion on a very sensitive site and the largest-ever seismic retrofit for...
An Irresistible Offer
An unusual case of public-private financing of part of a Florida beltway is described, in which developers along an unfinished section of the road paid for preliminary design that provided...
Rebound of the Bascule Bridge
A patented bascule bridge in Sheboygan, Wis. demonstrates design innovations that reduce the cost of bascule construction and minimize maintenance problems. The new $7.5 million South...
Chicago's Micropile Debut
On a tight, urban site around Chicago's historic Orchestra Hall, engineers used high-capacity micropiles as an alternative to hand-dug caissons. On a $104 million project...
Designs for Blast Protection (Available only in
The 1995 bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City was the most deadly terrorist act in this country's history. What can engineers do to prevent such events in the future?...
All-Around Arenas (Available only in
Structural form and architectural function go hand-in-hand in the design of today's modern multipurpose arenas. The 19th century architect, Louis H. Sullivan, coined the phrase...
Seismic Design Doubles Lateral Resistance (Available only in
A veterans hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. had to be built under severe design constraints. The seismic code for hospitals is among the most stringent of codes and this facility was sited...
New Address for the 21st Century
The purchase of the office building in Reston, Virginia, that will be the society's new headquarters is described. The decision to buy property was made in April 1993, candidate...
Engineering Ethics
Recent revelations about the 1978 emergency retrofit of the Citicorp Center in New York City sparked an assessment of ethical dilemmas by the structural engineering community. In May 1995,...
Balancing on the Tides
Using a system of pivoting, barge-mounted towers, a Virginia contractor floated bridge segments into position 120 ft above the York River, reducing costs and cutting erection time by nearly...
Bare Bones Buildings
A new approach to fire engineering opens possibilities of designing buildings in which the structural skeleton is part of the architectural statement. Fire and corrosion requirements used...
Seeking Structural Solutions
A photo essay on the unique work of Santiago Calatrava, a Spanish-born engineer and architect whose bridges and buildings have attracted international attention for their unusual esthetics....
Pyramid Power
The pyramids of Giza in Egypt were built with limestone from nearby quarries, not concrete as some have theorized. The three main pyramids of Giza mark a highpoint of pyramid building...
Singapore Showcase
A new bridge in Singapore has a unique pylon design and no piers. The deck hangs from the pylon supported by three back stays. The 100 m overpass bridge was designed for the Singapore...
The Taller the Deeper (Available only in the Geo/Environmental Special Issue)
While debate rages on about which structure holds the title of the world's tallest building, there is no dispute over which building has the deepest foundation. At 130 m below...
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