Power Shift
Engineers designing a Manhattan skyscraper with offices in the lower floors and residences in the upper found that they had to employ several unusual methods to accommodate client needs....
Tapping the Desert
As part of an effort to augment the limited supply of freshwater in El Paso, Texas, engineers and planners are eyeing a new source: desalinated water pumped from beneath the desert floor....
Metamorphosis
Ranked as one of the 15 tallest buildings in New York, the headquarters of the Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., is a 45-story skyscraper that is 815 ft (248 m) tall. Replacing an existing...
Repeat Performance
Working with a budget of $10 million, engineers designing a new high-rise residential structure in New York City had to find creative ways to control costs. One budget-saving idea was...
Evolution of Composite Floor Systems in the United States
Composite floor systems, which combine structural steel beams with a cast-in-place concrete slab, have grown in popularity in the U.S. during the past 40 years. In most early applications,...
Native American Imprint
Following a design phase of more than four years, construction has finally begun on the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian, which will occupy...
Above Them All
The design for what would be the next world's tallest building relies on a 1,550 ft (472 m) high concrete core that will give occupants of the top floors of the building unimpeded...
Control of Wind Response of the Trump World Tower
The Trump World Tower is a luxury residential building located on 1st Ave. and 48th St. in New York City,...
In Plain View
(Available only in Special Structural Issue) A structural engineer's work is typically hidden beneath layers of concrete and plaster, but the Pittsburgh Civic Center in the...
The Rationale for Above-Surface Facilities
The redevelopment of the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station�currently in the beginning phases of construction�will include the largest and most ambitious example of an elevated station...
Structural Surgery
Structural engineers had to transform four existing buildings and two new buildings into a new non-profit center for Jewish history. The buildings were of varying ages and had different...
Exacting Renovation
In the heart of Greenwich Village a building that would typically be demolished given its current condition has been saved and restored with careful engineering and a precise demolition/construction...
Concrete Colossus
After finding 120 million cubic meters of oil and 30 billion standard cubic meters of natural gas 175 kilometers off the Norwegian coast, Houston-based Conoco, Inc. was faced with a second...
Historic Downtown Dilemma (Available only in Structural Engineering special issue)
Many older commercial masonry buildings built of locally quarried stone or fired brick in downtown areas suffer from roof leaks. Because a studwall cavity often is located between the...
Tunneling Under Pressure
Work will begin this month on the South Bay Ocean Outfall (SBOO) project, a $140 million undertaking to build 3.6 mi of tunneling through the saturated ground of the Pacific Ocean. When...
Translucent Structural Beacon
In East Los Angeles some 2,000 children, teens and adults are accessing their future inside a building that is as high-tech as the computers they are using to learn. The 40,000 sq ft building...
Propeller Wash Induced Erosion at Quay Walls
The characteristics are examined of the sea bed erosion produced by the scouring action of a ship's propeller wash acting against a quay wall. The rate of development of erosion...
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...
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...
Hospital Over a Highway
New York Hospital is undergoing a $1 billion expansion that includes construction of a new building over the FDR Drive in Manhattan using air rights. The starting point for this building...
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