On October 5^th, GMS Partner Ramon Gilsanz visited Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to give a presentation entitled “Disaster Prevention.” The presentation was prepared by Ramon Gilsanz, Dan Eschenasy, Gia Antonelli, and Reed Miller, all from GMS, as well as Veronica Cedillos and Susan Bailey from Geohazards International (GHI). During the presentation, Gilsanz offered an introduction to previously employed practices, suggestions for improvement of coordination between architects and structural engineers, and methods to save human lives and reduce economic loss.

This coming Thursday will be a big day for GMS!

Jose Mendoza, AIA will be speaking at The Architect’s Newspaper’s Façade+ Conference of 2023 on March 30, 2023. The event will go on for two days, with the symposium being held on March 30th from 8 A.M. to 7 P.M.  at the Metropolitan Pavilion located in 125 West 18th Street, New York, NY. The second day will consist of workshops that will be held on March 31st at the New York Law School located at 185 West Broadway, New York, NY. You can register to attend the event here.

Principal Forensic Engineer Dan Eschenasy was invited to present at ASCE – Metropolitan Section’s 9th Annual RA Lecture on Thursday, March 30, 2023 from 6 P.M to 7 P.M EST. Dan will discuss building code requirements for Foundation Design and outline his views on the need for a published standard of care for geotechnical engineering, and the risks posed by the delegated design. You can register to attend the online webinar here.

On March 3, 2023, Jonathan Hernandez and Mark Beltramello served as presenters at APT Northeast’s 2023 Annual Meeting & Symposium at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, MA!

During their presentation, Jonathan and Mark discussed the structural restoration and renovation of terracotta materials, which included the implications and challenges that they have encountered in the terracotta buildings that have been restored, renovated, and repurposed. As they explained, the buildings containing terracotta arches and flat terracotta arch slabs utilize terra cotta as a load-bearing structural material. Also discussed was the history of these floor slab systems, and how much they’ve changed over time since being developed in 1871.

A few of their more recent case studies that were covered during their presentation included Manhattan Eye, Ear, & Throat Hospital (MEETH), 2 Bryant Park, the Flatiron Building, and 230 Park Avenue South, all of which contain flat terracotta arches.

You can read the full program here.

On June 7, Partner Ramon Gilsanz presented at the IX Connections 9th International Workshop on Connections in Steel Structures. Held in Coimbra, Portugal, this workshop provides researchers the opportunity to meet and discuss the behavior, strength, and design for steel structures.

GMS was thrilled to participate in the Facades+ Conference, held in New York City on April 13-14, where Senior Building Envelope Consultant Sara Gonzalez gave a presentation on 130 William Street. The façade of this unique 66-story building in Lower Manhattan is made of pre-cast panels with arched windows and loggias on the top floors. GMS was the façade consultant on the project, working with developer Lightstone Group, Adjaye Associates, and Hill West Architects.

The IASS 60th Anniversary Symposium (IASS SYMPOSIUM 2019) and 9th International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures (STRUCTURAL MEMBRANES 2019) have merged into a joint international conference, FORM and FORCE 2019, aiming to provide a forum for state-of-the-art contributions and fruitful discussion in the broad fields of shell, spatial, tension and inflatable structures. The 2019 conference was held in October in Barcelona, Spain and it covered concepts related to material, design, computation, construction, maintenance, history, environmental impact and sustainability of shell, spatial, tension and inflatable structures in all fields of application.

Miguel Lopez of GMS presented a paper, Lateral Load Resisting Facades, co-authored jointly by the GMS Structural Engineers and Building Envelope consultants Miguel Lopez, Joseph Blanchfield, Philip Murray, David Kazibwe, Carolyn Bai, Ramon Gilsanz. The paper’s abstract follows:

Simple modifications to traditional curtain wall slab anchors allow designers to incorporate a structure’s building envelope system into its lateral system, leading not only to improved structural performance, but a reduction in the building construction’s carbon footprint. This approach of integrating architecture with structural design to optimize building performance and construction embodies the principles of efficiency, economy, and elegance championed by the late Princeton Professor David Billington. In this paper, the potential benefits of utilizing façade members to contribute to the building stiffness is studied by reanalyzing 510 Madison Avenue, a 2012 Class-A steel high-rise office building in Manhattan. The building’s lateral system is comprised of moment and braced frames. The building’s façade is a unitized aluminum curtain wall system that utilizes traditional curtain wall anchors designed to prevent the transfer of loads between the façade and the structure.

GMS Partners Philip Murray,  Ramon Gilsanz and colleagues Zoe Champion and Helena Ariza also attended the conference, noting the networking opportunities and planned workshops to learn about new software applications, among other things. For more information, click here.

April 24 through 27, 2019 GMS Partners Ramon Gilsanz and Karl Rubenacker, as well as Associate Partners Eugene Kim, Jennifer Lan and Jessica Mandrick will travel to Orlando, Florida to attend this year’s ASCE/SEI Structures Congress.

Jessica will be moderating Innovation in Software and Technology for Structural Engineering (Session 508025), Thursday April 25 at 9.30 AM. Ramon will present on Optimal Design of Reinforced Concrete Structures (496799), Friday April 26 at 1.30 PM. Jennifer will present on Findings from the ATC Mexico City Earthquake Reconnaissance (507867), Friday April 26 at 1.30pm (with Ramon as co-presenter) and Ramon and Karl will present different chapters of the ASCE/SEI Design Guide Alternative Load Path Analysis Guidelines for Disproportionate Collapse (504616), Saturday April 27 at 11am.

On Wednesday April 24, Ramon and Karl will meet with the ASCE Standards Committee on Disproportionate Collapse Mitigation and Jessica will chair the SEI Board Young Professional Committee meeting.

Drop us a line if you will be attending, we would love to have a chance to catch up with you while we are there!

Click here to learn more about the Congress http://www.eventscribe.com/2019/STCONG19/ Or follow on Twitter #Structures19

GMS Partner Achim Hermes will be presenting at the 2nd Annual Design Build Excellence Spring Symposium on Friday, April 26th of this year.

Achim will present on “Building Facade Essentials: Acoustical Design, Implementation, and Quality Assurance” together with AKRF.

Click to learn more and register http://www.eventbrite.com/e/2nd-annual-design-build-excellence-spring-symposium-registration-59106774955

GMS Partners Joseph Basel, PE and Gary Steficek, PE will travel to Shenzhen, China later this week, for the CTBUH 2019 Tall + Urban Innovation Conference.

Basel will present on The Future of Tall Building Renovation, and Steficek will chair the Jury for the 2019 CTBUH Renovation Awards.

On October 18, 2016, Ramon Gilsanz of GMS presented to the members of the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY) about global trends in earthquake design and resilience.

The lecture looked at common features of buildings in a variety of regions across the world which are prone to earthquakes. Such features include weak ground stories, considerations for adding new floors, alterations and enlargement of existing buildings and the potential for soil failures like liquefaction and lateral spreading. Using his experience from earthquake reconnaissance trips to Chile, Virginia, Greece, Taiwan and Ecuador, Mr. Gilsanz then discussed the impact of resilience in structures, specifically how to apply lessons from other cultures to improve the built environment here in New York City. He concluded with a review of the NYC Building Code provisions for resilience.