Every month, our staff works hard to bring you interesting and relevant articles, photos, opinions, and product information. As you know, last month we re-launched this magazine as Structural Engineering & Design (formerly Structural Engineer magazine) and I used my editor’s note to discuss why we changed and what we hoped to do with the magazine going forward. This month I’d like to point out some of the details.
Cover story — First things first, each month the cover story will highlight a successful project as well as the people and firms that made it possible. We call it People-Projects-Firms and purposefully look for projects that have succeeded because of the collaboration and teamwork employed by the whole design team, but especially between the structural engineer and the architect. You will also note that we will celebrate the design team on the cover, along with the project. We want to recognize the talented professionals behind the project’s success.
This month we feature a renovation project in New York City, which would not have been possible without the strong collaboration between the structural engineer, Ciro Cuono, P.E., LEED AP, and architect, Sara Grant, AIA, LEED AP. Read their article, my interview with them, and more about their firms beginning on page 10, “Preserving history while designing for the future.”
Features — Beyond the cover story, the rest of the features will consist of a special feature — one that is usually written by our staff — and several contributed features covering technical and materials topics. Additionally, we will include a product-based feature, contributed either by a manufacturer or a practitioner, which discusses specific project details and how a certain product solved a challenge. This month, be sure to read “The benefits of reinventing the wheel,” by Rick Oehmcke, S.E. He discusses how his firm strategically and purposefully re-defined roles and responsibilities to better use and leverage the benefits of BIM and IPD on projects; the article begins on page 24.
Columns — Structural Engineering & Design has a tremendous line up of columnists. With a rotating schedule, each issue will bring you a technical column — either about software and technology or the well-read Code Simple; a business column — topics rotate between Legal Counsel Q & A, Ethics, and Risk Management; a design column — alternating between Integrated Design (a viewpoint piece with a structural engineer and architect commenting on the same topic) or Sustainable Design; and the favorite The View From Here.
Two columns I want to point out this month, although they are all good, are the Sustainable Design column on page 20 and The View From Here. The Sustainable Design column will follow a great format in which the authors will introduce a topic in one month, and then follow up the next time with real-world examples regarding that topic. This month authors Jim D’Aloisio, P.E., SECB, LEED AP, and Russ Miller-Johnson, P.E., explain the problem of thermal bridging; in April, they will present solutions that structural engineers can use to mitigate the problem.
I encourage you to read, “Who knows these world-renown American legends?” on page 42 because long-time columnist Richard G. Weingardt, P.E., discusses the origin of National Engineers Week and provides a fun quiz.
Departments — Around the Web will plug web-exclusive content or highlight top news stories on www.GoStructural.com Be sure to read “Chew on this” on page 9 for some tasty bits of engineering! And, take some time to look at the new products hitting the market in New & Noteworthy on page 39, especially of interest is the recently published Leading with Marketing.
Ads — Of course we wouldn’t be able to bring you any of this important content if we didn’t have the support of our advertisers. The handy ReaderResource located on page 41 is a road map for the whole issue. Our annual Best Firms To Work For ranking program has begun; see the ad on page 35 for details of the 2010 program.
Jennifer Goupil, P.E.,
jgoupil@stagnitomedia.com
