"Because no single person has the entire breadth of competency required [to design and build today’s buildings], we must collaborate with each other," advised Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger CEO Glenn R. Bell, P.E., S.E., during his plenary session address at the 2007 Structures Congress, held May 16-19 in Long Beach, Calif. Bell’s presentation—titled "Engineering-driven architecture"—focused on the perspective of the 21st century engineer with an interest in structures, building envelopes, mechanical systems, and construction methods.

His message was not only inspiring, but two of his conclusions resonated with me for several reasons. First, Bell encouraged attendees to embrace a broader vision of our role as structural engineers. Our quest, he explained, should not just be to size a beam, but to decide if the beam is necessary. He concluded that we engineers should be on the forefront of decision making in our projects, not simply the executors of those decisions. I found this to dovetail brilliantly with the comments from ASCE President William Marcuson III, Ph.D., P.E., who spoke just minutes before Bell did.

Marcuson energized the audience by answering the question, "What will make American civil engineers more valuable than foreign competitors?" His well-made point was that we will do it with advanced knowledge and skills as we develop ourselves into global leaders. He likened the solution to how the military is organized—such that a small percentage of highly trained and skilled people lead and command the rest of the qualified population. His analogy concluded that American civil engineers will act as the "officers" of the world-wide "battalion" of trained engineers.

This is a vision that has been touted by many leaders in our profession as we engage in the global market with an increasing number of foreign civil engineering competitors.

Second, Bell advocated true collaboration with architects by building strong relationships, as well as through conscious integration of constructability and cost considerations into our designs. This seems easy enough at face value, but it demands that we accurately understand our partners’ needs and goals during our design efforts. The only way to accomplish this is through consistent and meaningful communication with architects, contractors, owners, and other consultants on your projects.

This point has been echoed many times by the participants of the Structural Engineer Roundtable Series. Every time I host one of the hour-long discussions, nearly every participant testifies that his or her job is easier and is performed more accurately when the right information is accurately communicated early on in the project.

Recently, I hosted a roundtable discussion on concrete formwork. I invited several structural engineers as well as formwork contractors and suppliers to discuss how each could help the other to more easily and accurately perform their job. The panel shared their opinions and offered advice to each other; see "Structural Engineer’s Roundtable"  to learn from their dialogue.

It is this type of collaboration that will advance our collective knowledge so that we may increase our role in the design process and make "officers" out of us all.