The March issue of Structure Magazine features an article by GMS Principal Forensic Engineer Dan Eschenasy entitled “Underlying Causes of Exterior Sign Accidents.”

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.

Dan Eschenasy PE. F.SEI

Principal Forensic Engineer

A new version of the New York City Building Code becomes effective this 7^th November. Will it impact the recent years’ trend of increase in the number of cases related to Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law – §881  Access to adjoining property to make improvements or repairs (RPAPL 881)?  In older areas of New York City (NYC), the building density is such that any new construction or even some alterations cannot be executed without accessing the adjoining property for inspection and installation of protective devices. As a result, the negotiations and cases are generally based on the sections prescribing the protection of adjoining property of NYC Building Code Chapter 33 Safeguards during Construction or Demolition. Even though the 2022 Building Code edition has only a limited number of changes to these Chapter 33 sections, this engineer proposes that the changes in subchapter 3306 Demolition related to temporary weather protection and building assessment may provide increased opportunities to negotiate licenses to access adjoining properties. Separately, it is most probable that additional sources for negotiations may be found in the new 1817.3 Evaluation of adjacent buildings for suitable methods of support.

This is a detailed forensic investigation report on the Windsor Building fire that took place in Madrid, Spain in 2005. This paper was co-authored by Ramon Gilsanz alongside Arturo Montalva of Hinman Consulting Engineers and Vincent Pons i Frigola, Vincent Pons i Grau, and Oscar Herrera of the Technical Office of Forensic Engineering in Spain.