Dear Friends and Colleagues,

During this unprecedented and challenging time, we wanted to reach out and share our current plan for the evolving COVID-19 situation, and how we plan to manage going forward.

Our priority is everyone’s safety and well-being as we continue to deliver on our business obligations with professionalism. While our offices in New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles remain open and accessible for essential personnel, we have encouraged our entire staff to work from home as much as possible. We have implemented remote working protocols that will allow our staff to perform their job functions efficiently, enabling GMS as a whole to move our projects forward minimizing disruption.

Additionally, we will cautiously continue to perform field visits and required inspections, until otherwise directed. We know these visits are critical and time-sensitive, and it is our goal to continue to perform these duties with additional precautions and protective measures in place both for our staff as well as our colleagues.

Finally, we intend to keep all meetings with our team and clients as scheduled, utilizing services such as GoTo, WebEx, Zoom and other services in lieu of face-to-face meetings in accordance with Social Distancing recommendations.

We continue to monitor CDC and Government directives constantly and will evaluate our response to this situation on a daily basis. Should anything change in the plan outlined above, we will send a follow-up to this email with further detail.

Working together and with a strong communication plan in place, we believe we can overcome the challenges of these times. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to any of the GMS partners.

Wishing you all good health, and please stay safe.

GMS Team

GMS joins NYCares in their yearly coat drive campaign. This well-known nonprofit collects new and slightly used coats from all over the city and then distributes them to social service agencies, public schools, transitional housing, and more.

Winter temperatures can be extremely low in NYC and at the same time, the number of people in need is on the rise, so we are extending a hand to those who are the most vulnerable – this is the season to give back.

Thank you to all the staff at GMS, as well as their families and friends who have helped us gather 18 coats! These coats will help children, young adults and adults stay warm this season.

#coatdrive #actsofwarmth #nycares

GMS was honored with a Concrete Industry Board Special Merit Award for Structural Design for the Virgin Hotel project and an Award of Merit – Mixed-Use for Tangram.

Our team is very proud of how each project is turning out.

The Awards Dinner at Marina del Rey, in the Bronx was a fun night of celebration with our industry colleagues and friends.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

Congratulations to our Associate Partner, Jessica Mandrick, on being named one of five 2019 Emerging Leaders by the CTBUH New York Future Leaders Committee.

GMS is proud to have such a committed professional on our team and this award is well-deserved. Jessica started at GMS in 2007 as an engineer and has worked on a broad range of projects. Within our office she advocates for broader internal education programs, wider exposure to different project types and encourages participation in professional organizations. “It is important that engineers see hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes as more than just loads, and consider their societal impact. Engineers are well educated to take a seat at the table in the larger conversation on disaster preparedness, risk tolerance, and infrastructure investment.”

We congratulate Jessica and know this is just one of many honors she will receive throughout her professional life. And we thank her for her contributions to our industry.

The award will be presented during the CTBUH NY Regional Conference Reception on Friday, November 1, 2019 at The Penn Club in New York City.

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.

Last Tuesday, September 24  SEAoNY celebrated their Annual Meeting of 2019.

Fairfield University and Centerbrook Architects and Planners have shared new images of the #Stags new Convocation Center. Have a first look here  https://fairfieldstags.com/feature/ConvocationCenter

This new 85,000 sf facility will include a 3,500 seat multi-use space for basketball, volleyball or university events and concerts. The seating can be reconfigured to allow two practice courts, or infilled to create an event or dining space. The venue includes a state-of-the-art broadcast and media center, as well as spaces devoted to the student athletes. The GMS team includes: Gary Steficek, Eugene Kim, John Hinchcliffe, Nam Hee Kim, Khaoula Msaaf, Nicolas Gomez, Phoebe Wang, Kristina Zarrella, Juan Escobar, Arkadi Goldin, Irina Goldin and Miryam Varona.

Image courtesy of Centerbrook Architects and Planners

Whether you’re shopping for a home or planning your next vacation stay, take a look at these homes GMS has engineered…

Among GMS’ extensive portfolio, we bring vast experience with single-family residences in New York and throughout the Americas.  Many of our projects are located on inland, mountain and coastal properties including eastern beachfront homes in hurricane prone regions within high velocity wave zones in the flood plain, and pacific beach properties where landslides and earthquakes pose additional hazards.  These homes are constructed using timber, steel, architecturally exposed concrete and extensive glass facades. Contact Phil Murray if you are thinking of building your own dream.

Courtesy of Restoration Hardware

The intersection of Ninth Avenue, Gansevoort Street and Little West 12th Street in Manhattan’s Gansevoort Market Historic District, has been in active use for over 150 years. It has served as an open air market, stables, a meatpacking warehouse and, as possibly it’s most notable incarnation, the home of the much loved bistro, Pastis. It is now the new 90,000 square foot home of Restoration Hardware’s Manhattan flagship.