This new 6-story commercial building in the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District replaces a two-story taxpayer building. The new steel framed structure, designed by BKSK Architects, features a terra cotta rain screen and glass curtain wall facade system that transitions along the building perimeter from punched windows representative of an earlier masonry era, to a more open open frame emblematic of SoHo’s later cast-iron era. The entire 52,000 square foot building is leased by Nike. According to the New York Times, “design fans should soon be recognizing it as one of the most exciting and intelligent structures to be built for decades, anywhere.”

New development is an infrequent occurrence in the East 20s, but from 121 East 22nd Street through to 122 East 23rd Street, Toll Brothers City Living is almost finished on their latest project, designed by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture. GMS is providing exterior envelope consulting services for this new mid-rise residential condominium building.

The Woolworth building will be the first “Building of the Day” celebrating this year’s Archtober. Archtober (ärk’tōbər) is New York City’s Architecture and Design Month, the annual festival of architecture tours, lectures, films, and exhibitions taking place during October.

There are approximately 50,000 buildings on the 22.8 square mile island of Manhattan and the majority of construction occurs in densely built areas only a few feet from occupied buildings. When your neighbor builds or renovates, there may be residual effects on your property.

Jonathan Hernandez, GMS Partner, was inducted as the President-Elect for the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY) for 2017-2018. The ceremony occurred during SEAoNY’s Annual Meeting, held at the Center For Architecture in New York on September 14, 2017.<!–more–>

The purpose of SEAoNY is to advance the art of structural engineering in New York by improving the flow of ideas and building the community of colleagues. SEAoNY also reaches out to other professionals, outside the engineering community, who work in related fields with common interests. The association sponsors workshops, panel discussions, lectures and seminars with the aim of addressing topics of interest and concern to structural engineers. SEAoNY is a member organization of the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations (NCSEA). Jonathan is also a member of the NCSEA Board of Directors.

In buildings, Mass Concrete is frequently used for mat foundations, blast resistant walls, transfer girders or deep beams. However, there are no hard and fast rules to determine if your concrete element qualifies.

GMS engineers and inspectors refreshed their knowledge of welding and bolting inspection procedures at a seminar led by Albert Wong, senior inspector at GMS. The lecture covered types of bolts, welds, connections, and failures, as well as inspection requirements for maintaining quality control of construction.

In the past few weeks, FIVE of our colleagues celebrated a work anniversary at GMS.

Many thanks to Juan Escobar, Carl Zanier, Tim Barnard, partner Joe Basel, and Ken Chu for their hard work and creativity over the last 20 years.

Each has helped form our firm and nurture our next generation of structural engineers.

Thank you!

For over a decade, GMS has served as the Woolworth Building’s structural engineer. Presently, the upper portion of this landmark (30th Floor-60th Floor) is being converted to residential apartments designed by Thierry Despont.

GMS is very proud to recognize our engineers who have successfully attained their Professional Engineer (PE) licenses this summer: (photo from left) Carolyn Bai, PE, Isaac Epstein, PE, Sanaz Saadat, PhD, PE, Daniel Gleave, PE, and Akbar Mahvashmohammadi, PhD, PE.