The 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, organized by the International Association of Earthquake Engineering took place from 9th January to the 13th January 2017 in Santiago, Chile. The conference covered engineering seismology, tsunamis, geotechnical earthquake engineering, design of new structures, assessment and retrofitting of existing structures, infrastructure and lifeline systems, preparedness and emergency management of large earthquakes, as well as social and economic aspects, and urban risk assessment.

GMS Associate Jessica Mandrick wrote an opinion in the STRUCTURE magazine column, Structural Forum.

Natural disasters devastate communities, destroy structures, halt livelihoods, and take lives. With each event, engineers aim to improve our practices to lessen the impact of future incidents. Reconnaissance trips following natural or manmade disasters can provide a valuable education.

The Judges in the 2016 Engineering Excellence Awards Competition have selected American Physical Society for a 2017 ACEC New York Diamond Award in the category of Structural Systems.

The Judges in the 2016 Engineering Excellence Awards Competition have selected Porcelanosa for a 2017 ACEC New York Platinum Award in the category of Structural Systems.

“Tales of Our Time” brings together a diverse group of younger artists to offer a broader view of the next wave in Chinese contemporary art. The artists examine conditions in contemporary China through approaches that often blur the distinction between fact and fiction. Employing media from ink painting to animatronics, they conceive of China more as a concept than as an identity, eschewing easy associations and symbols.

CANctuary, a structure of cans of tuna fish, designed by engineers and architects at GMS and currently on view at Brookfield Place, as won the Cheri Award of the 24th annual Canstruction competition.

Canstruction is an international charity competition where 26 teams of architects, engineers, contractors and the students they mentor, competed this year to design and build giant structures made entirely from cans of food. At the close of the competition all of the food from the New York City competition will be donated to City Harvest.

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.

On the evening of April 16th, 2016, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck northern Ecuador, offshore from its west coast. The event drew the attention of the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association, due to the several hundred casualties, tens of thousands homeless, and destruction along the west coast, with evidence of severe ground motions and geotechnical failures.

Jessica Mandrick presented at the SEAOC Technical Session on the recent Taiwan Meinong earthquake.

Jessica Mandrick, SE presented fifth in the Session titled Learning from the 2014 South Napa and 2016 Tainan Earthquakes during the 2016 Annual Conference of the Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC), October 12-15 in Ka’anapali Beach, Maui. The focus of this session was to highlight the lessons learned during the GMS and USGS reconnaissance trip to Tainan, which took place in February 2016 in collaboration with EERI, ATC, and NCREE. The team visited the city of Tainan and its vicinity to survey, study, and document damage and site-related observations from the recent 6.4 Meinong Earthquake. The focus of the paper/presentation included observed design and construction issues as well as the societal response to the earthquake.

Samsung 837 and Zaha Hadid’s 520 West 28th Street will be featured in this year’s Archtober. Archtober (ärk’tōbər) is New York City’s Architecture and Design Month, the fifth annual month-long festival of architecture activities, programs and exhibitions taking place during the month of October.