The practicing structural engineer today must not only have a broad understanding of not just structural engineering, but must be knowledgeable about architecture, M/E/P systems, construction delivery methodologies, and the construction process. All projects come with their own litany of challenges and constraints, and the structural engineer is one of the key players in achieving the optimal solution. The project’s budget, the selected performance and design criteria, the architectural form, and the operating systems all affect the selection of the appropriate structural materials and lateral force resisting system. Then the analysis must get translated into a design, and the design must clearly and carefully be delineated into construction documents including plans, details, sections and technical specifications, with appropriate attention to sequencing, phasing and constructability. This all gives rise to the notion of today’s structural engineer as a “Master Builder,” one who can articulate their way through a complex labyrinth of form finding, criteria setting, risk evaluation, design and documentation, and construction (and hopefully not litigation). Some current projects that highlight these issues include:

San Francisco City Hall
Forell/Elsesser served as Prime Engineer for the complete repair and base isolation seismic upgrade of the 550,000 sq.ft., 4-story City Hall which contains both Superior and Municipal Courts for the City and County of San Francisco. This “essential facility” is a classic steel framed structure with a 310-foot high dome clad with perimeter granite walls and with hollow clay tile interior walls. Base isolation was selected because it is cost-effective, allowed for minimum disruption to the ornate historic building, and provided maximum protection. The structural solution consisted of 530 isolators, concrete shear walls, steel collectors, reinforcement of rotunda tower walls and installation of steel braces and shotcrete walls were used at various levels of the dome.

UCSF Parnassus Ray & Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building
The construction of this 80,000 SF stem cell research building utilized the design/build delivery system. The program included wet laboratories, laboratory support, offices, an auditorium, and “green roofs.” This unique building, designed by the renowned and international architect, Rafael Viñoly, is situated on a steeply sloped site and terraces vertically through a series of steps along the building length. The structure is steel framed with special friction pendulum isolators that protect the structure and the sensitive equipment and research it houses from the effects of a major seismic event.

UC Berkeley California Memorial Stadium
This historic concrete football stadium was originally built in 1923 and was designed by John Galen Howard. The project included seismic strengthening and modernization of this non-ductile concrete frame structure with a seating capacity of 72,000-seats. The west bowl retrofit saved the perimeter historic wall of the stadium; provided a new seating bowl, press box, and 200,000 SF of game-day and programmatic improvements. The unusual aspect of the project was created by the challenged posed by the Stadium sitting atop the northern segment of the Hayward Fault, which runs approximately from end zone to end zone. The retrofit of the fault rupture segments includes “blocks,” separated from the adjacent building portions, and free to move independently when the fault ruptures and displaces. The West Bowl was an interesting challenge as well, and utilized vertically-post-tensioned rocking concrete walls and passive viscous dampers.