2026 SEE Awards Finalists
The Structural Engineering Excellence (SEE) Awards recognize the most innovative and creative achievements in structural engineering. Presented annually by NCSEA, these prestigious awards honor projects that showcase ingenuity, technical skill, and groundbreaking design — from towering buildings to intricate bridges, celebrating the remarkable work that shapes our built environment.
Meet this year’s finalists below. Winners will be revealed live at the SEE Awards Celebration in San Francisco on October 29 at the NCSEA Summit.
Sustainable Design
Trinity University Dicke Hall
Datum Engineers Inc.
San Antonio, Texas, USA
The “front door” to Trinity University’s School of Humanities in San Antonio, Texas is Dicke Hall, an unusual structure that features architecturally exposed heavy-timber components. As San Antonio’s first cross-laminated timber (CLT) facility, this multi-award-winning building is a showpiece that blends sustainable design with deep respect for the campus’ architectural heritage. Based on a post-construction study, the design achieved a 53% embodied carbon reduction with only a 0.2% cost premium over a conventional steel-framed, wood-finished project. The structural contributions of a prefabricated system selection, followed by optimization of structural materials, geometry, grid, and floor-to-floor heights contributed significantly to these goals. The selected system resulted in large overhangs to improve daylight qualities without solar gain, use of CLT shear walls to eliminate concrete, and a signature interior CLT stair. The design team’s integrated process included an academic partnership where faculty and students participated in modeling, measurement, and post- occupancy research.
Warp 10
EwingCole
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
WARP10 is a 196,000-square-foot pharmaceutical manufacturing facility that advances low-carbon structural design within a demanding cGMP environment. The project integrates manufacturing, laboratory, warehouse, office, and utility functions within a unified system designed to achieve net-zero operational and embodied carbon. The structure employs a hybrid system combining mass timber with conventional steel framing. Glulam and cross-laminated timber (CLT) are used extensively in long-span roof systems and office areas to reduce embodied carbon, while steel is selectively used in high-demand zones. The design achieves column grids approaching 54 feet and clear heights up to 35 feet, exceeding typical laboratory standards and enabling long-term adaptability. Structural systems were optimized to minimize material quantities, including reduced slab thicknesses requiring innovative anchorage and supplemental framing for dense utilities, including over 19,000 supports. WARP10 demonstrates how hybrid structural systems, efficient lateral design, and material optimization can support high-performance industrial facilities while advancing measurable carbon reduction.
Innovation Materials & Applications
Nu Stadium Canopy Roof
schlaich bergermann partner
Miami, Florida, USA
Nu Stadium, Inter Miami CF’s new 25,000-seat home, showcases the first U.S. stadium to use a spoked-wheel cable roof with a central opening instead of a traditional heavy cantilever truss system. Measuring approximately 650ft by 770ft and covered with PTFE and ETFE membrane over 325,000 sf, the roof resists hurricane wind loads in one of the country’s most demanding climatic environments. Mimicking a bicycle wheel, the outer compression ring and two concentric prestressed tension rings carry loads primarily through axial forces, significantly reducing structural steel compared to traditional approaches. Radial cables connect the outer structure to the tension rings, which follow an undulating vertical geometry achieving equilibrium while minimizing bending. Innovative construction using a “big-lift” approach was achieved by laying out cables at bowl level and jacking the tension rings upward across 48 radial axes, avoiding shore towers and helping meet site and schedule constraints.
Barbados National Performing Arts Centre, Phase 1
StructureCraft
Newton, Christ Church, Barbados
The Barbados National Performing Arts Centre is the island’s first purpose-built performing arts venue. Its Phase I structure is a 35,000 sf all-wood pavilion, designed, engineered, and built in four months to open for CARIFESTA XV. The pavilion’s primary structure uses no metal connections. Its 80 ft span, 20 ft deep central truss is believed to be a world first at this span and load level: a primary structural truss with no screws, adhesives, or metal fasteners at any connection. The truss geometry was optimized as an arch to channel forces into compression, enabling load transfer entirely through timber joinery. Designed as the permanent core of the future Phase II theatre, its perimeter canopies will be reconfigured rather than demolished, creating two buildings from one set of materials. Built from sustainably sourced glulam, it demonstrates low-carbon mass timber construction in a region where it is rarely seen.
Jeddah Superdome
Geometrica, Inc.
Jeddah, Makkah Region, Saudi Arabia
Geometrica, Inc., a Texas-based engineering firm and specialists in longspan domes, worked closely with main contractor Losberger De Boer, German specialists in modular structures, to design and build the new Jeddah Superdome in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A key feature is the new “Saturn” geometry which uses triangular, double layer space-frame modules. This geometry allows more than half of the dome struts in each layer to be identical to each other. Every structure ring is horizontal with only two different strut types, speeding up both manufacturing and installation. The structure was manufactured on site and installed concurrently. It spans 689 ft and covers an area of 372,500 square feet without internal columns. It weighs only 8.2 psf. Upon opening its doors in 2021, the Jeddah Superdome earned two Guinness World Records: World’s largest geodesic dome, and World’s largest dome with a continuous roof.
Bridge and Transportation
Hawk Falls Bridge Replacement
Modjeski and Masters, Inc.
Kidder Township, Pennsylvania, USA
The Hawk Falls Bridge spans Mud Run, a deep natural gorge in Pennsylvania’s Hickory Run State Park. Originally built in the 1950s along the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the aging structure had reached the end of its service life. The challenge was to design a replacement that preserved the gorge’s natural beauty, minimized long-term maintenance, and met modern traffic demands—the solution: a 720-foot steel bridge with a 465-foot steel deck arch span. Its most defining feature is the three-rib steel arch configuration. Utilizing a three-rib system of two-hinged arches maximizes clear space under the bridge, accommodates future widening, and improves load distribution. Vierendeel struts between the arches, and the absence of spandrel column bracing creates a more open, graceful appearance, ensuring the bridge harmonizes with its surroundings. By combining structural innovation with environmental sensitivity, the Hawk Falls Bridge stands as a resilient and elegant infrastructure solution for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Ralph Wilson Park Bridge
schlaich bergermann partner
Buffalo, New York, USA
The Ralph Wilson Park Bridge in Buffalo, New York, is a signature pedestrian and bicycle crossing spanning 265 feet over I-190 and an active CSX rail corridor in a single uninterrupted span. Replacing an obsolete bridge, it connects seamlessly to Ralph Wilson Park with accessible ramps, a 16-foot-wide walking surface, and a welcoming gateway to the Lake Erie waterfront. The design reimagines the network tied arch bridge by using perforated steel hanger plates instead of cables. These rigid plates support the deck while also providing fall protection, transparency, and lightness. Doubly curved 22-foot-tall steel arches and a selectively opened roof create a slender, efficient form. Steel plate construction serves multiple roles—load support, enclosure, railing, and acoustic shielding—while airtight welded box members improve durability Large‑segment prefabrication, shop trial assembly, and a single‑lift installation during a planned 12‑hour shutdown of I‑190 and CSX, minimized risk, improved quality, and ensured efficient use of materials and labor.
Washington State Ferries – Mukilteo Ferry Terminal Building
KPFF Consulting Engineers
Mukilteo, Washington, USA
The Washington State Ferries Mukilteo Ferry Terminal is a true multimodal hub, bringing ferry, vehicle, train, bus, bicycle, and pedestrian access together in one facility. As one of Washington’s busiest ferry terminals and WSF’s first new terminal in 40 years, the design team worked closely with WSF and local tribal governments to create a structure inspired by the region’s traditional Native American wooden longhouse. KPFF’s goals were to design a durable structural system that could support ferry operations, allow future expansion, and express a modern Coast Salish longhouse form; balance maritime security requirements with an open passenger environment; and optimize the system so cross-laminated timber could be used cost-effectively in a marine setting. The result is a seismically resilient, adaptable terminal that combines steel, concrete, and CLT while meeting code requirements and honoring the site’s Coast Salish heritage.
Landmark Structures
The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum Phase I
Datum Rios, LLC
Richardson, Texas, USA
The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum at The University of Texas at Dallas is a visually striking cultural landmark that appears to float above the campus. The elevated exhibit hall hovers dramatically over the central plaza, framed by 209-ft long steel trusses and supported by three pairs of architecturally exposed V-columns. The columns integrate electrical and plumbing systems and require a unique reinforcement strategy to manage both appearance and performance. The structural design combines a long-span steel system with a robust post-tensioned concrete base, creating a clean, sculptural form. A complex façade, composed of curved and sloped precast panels, presented additional challenges that required delicate and precise coordination. Combining attention to constructability, performance, and long-term durability, this project exemplifies how structural engineers can turn an ambitious architectural vision into a safe, serviceable, and efficient landmark structure.
The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Medora, North Dakota, USA
The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, ND, demonstrates structural engineering innovation transforming project constraints into opportunities for sustainable design excellence. Evoking the Badlands’ landscape, the 100,000-square-foot library challenged engineers to create a structure that functions as both building and landform to reflect Roosevelt’s love of the land, honor his pioneering conservation efforts, and target ambitious Living Building Challenge goals. The project’s complexity was driven by the combination of a heavily loaded accessible green roof, long-span public spaces, rigorous embodied-carbon targets, and a remote construction location where skilled labor, specialty materials, and fabrication resources were limited. A creative hybrid structural system was developed combining mass timber panels, glulam beams, and structural steel. Each material was strategically utilized where it performed most efficiently, creating expansive column-free spaces while minimizing material use and embodied carbon. The roof’s complex curve uses economical straight-line geometry rather than custom-curved components, preserving the architectural vision while simplifying fabrication and construction.
10 World Trade
Thornton Tomasetti
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
10 World Trade is a 17-story life-science and office tower in Boston’s Seaport District that uses structure to turn a constrained site into a civic asset. Rising above roads, transit infrastructure, and major grade changes, the project creates a multilevel public realm anchored by a column-free Great Hall, land bridge, terraces, cultural space, and wellness amenities. A system of large, nonplanar steel arch transfer trusses defines the project’s structural innovation. The arches support nearly 40% of the tower’s weight while opening the base to public use. Above this expressive base, the tower shifts to a rational steel frame that supports vibration-sensitive labs, flexible office floors, and a curved façade without sacrificing efficiency or adaptability. The project replaces a surface parking lot with a compact, transit-oriented destination and shows how structural engineering can create landmark value through performance, public space, and urban connection, not just height or form.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art — David Geffen Galleries
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Los Angeles, California, USA
The David Geffen Galleries, the new home of LACMA’s permanent collection is a powerful demonstration of architecturally exposed concrete as the defining material of the building, encompassing structure, finish, and environmental performance. The 900-foot-long building spans Wilshire Boulevard, hovering 30 feet above the ground as a continuous, sculptural form. Over 360 miles of post-tensioning cables and 15,000 tons of reinforcing steel are embedded within 85,000 cubic yards of concrete, enabling the building’s 60-80 foot cantilevers, joint-free construction, and fully exposed surfaces without secondary framing. Mechanical, electrical, lighting and life-safety systems are concealed within concrete plenums, preserving the calm, uninterrupted quality of the galleries. The entirely exposed, post-tensioned concrete structure functions as both the primary structural system and the finished architectural surface. A monolithic, amoebic slab – shaped by sweeping curves and dramatic cantilevers – supports a single, expansive gallery level, allowing the collection to unfold as a continuous experience.
Non-Building Structures
Obama Presidential Center Speech Panels
TYLin
Chicago, Illinois, USA
The Obama Presidential Center Speech Panels transform President Obama’s 2015 “You Are America” speech into a load-bearing civic monument. At the upper corner of the 225-foot museum tower, 39 precast stainless-steel fiber-reinforced UHPC panels form an 84-foot-tall by 134-foot-wide typographic screen wall. With individual letters and words spanning up to 40 feet between just four lines of support and no secondary steel backup frame, it represents the tallest and longest-spanning architectural use of UHPC in North America. To meet fixed geometry, attachment points, and demanding wind, ice, and thermal conditions, the engineering team designed the letters themselves at the structure. Custom digital workflows, nonlinear UHPC analysis, and specialized reinforcement resolved complex forces while preserving the architectural vision. Fabrication used reusable letter forms to create a repeatable kit-of-parts system, reducing waste and risk. The completed panels turn syntax into structure, demonstrating how advanced material science, computational design, and constructability-driven engineering can transform words into architecture.
La Libreria, Venice Biennale of Architecture
schlaich bergermann partner
Venice, Italy
Designed by SBP and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, this demountable bookstore pavilion for the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2025 relies entirely on elements in tension and compression, wrapped in a tensioned membrane, to create a lightweight, column-free enclosure. Visitors move through the 80ft pavilion, which tapers from 21 feet at its center to 11.5 feet at each end. To keep the central axis fully open, the design centers on a 100 foot roof-ridge tensegrity beam wrapped in 14 opposing helical cables, with spoked rings every 13 feet. The single-sheet, three-layer STFE membrane from Serge Ferrari forms the weathertight envelope, laced to the steel frame without welding or clamping profiles. All steel components fit within standard shipping containers for barge delivery, assembly relied on a single forklift, and bearing-bolt connections kept erection simple and reversible. Completed in five months, the pavilion reflects tensegrity’s elegance and efficiency.
Renovation/Adaptive Reuse
Oregon State Capitol Renovation – CAMS
catena / Forell Elsesser Engineers, Inc.
Salem, Oregon, USA
CAMS — Capitol Accessibility, Maintenance, and Safety — is the seismic rehabilitation and renovation of Oregon’s 1938 State Capitol and its 1977 Legislative Wings and Connector in Salem, Oregon, delivered jointly by catena consulting engineers and Forell Elsesser Engineers. The project strengthens a historic, non-ductile concrete-frame complex damaged in the 1993 Scotts Mills earthquake and located near the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The retrofit combines 158 triple friction pendulum seismic isolators with a new concourse level excavated more than 20 feet beneath the existing building. Post-tensioned transfer beams reduced the new level’s column grid and served as temporary shoring during construction. A new mat foundation supports the isolated structure, while in-situ air-bag testing verified the capacity of historic unreinforced masonry infill. A concealed two-foot seismic moat allows the building to move independently during earthquakes while remaining invisible to visitors. By re-founding the Capitol on isolators while creating new space beneath it, CAMS turns a seismic mandate into an adaptive reuse opportunity, extending a landmark building’s life while preserving its historic character.
2011 Crystal Drive Repositioning
SK&A Structural Engineers
Arlington, Virginia, USA
Located in the South District of National Landing, 100,000 square feet of this eleven-story office building was repositioned into a workplace destination with shared dining, collaboration, and event spaces. Bringing that vision to life required far more than a typical renovation. To create the column-free event venue, three existing reinforced concrete columns were removed, transferring approximately 1,000 kips of gravity load per column through exposed one-story structural steel transfer trusses. The structural scope also included new micropile foundation for new columns extending through three parking levels, replacement of hanger columns, extensive slab reconstruction, monumental stairs, new terraces, and an innovative floating slab. The greatest challenge was safely transforming the building while it remained occupied. The project demonstrates how thoughtful structural engineering can unlock the full potential of adaptive reuse. Through creative structural solutions, the project transformed an aging office building into a vibrant workplace destination while providing a model for managing risk.
University of California, Berkeley — Grimes Engineering Center
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Berkeley, California, USA
The Grimes Engineering Center at the University of California, Berkeley transforms a beloved 1980s concrete Brutalist-style building into a resilient, welcoming “front porch” for the College of Engineering. The project advances adaptive reuse by adding 35,000 square feet through a lightweight glass-and-steel pavilion atop the existing structure. A mass-neutral strategy — replacing the original heavy roof landscaping with lightweight steel framing of similar weight enabled the vertical expansion while minimizing foundation retrofit and reducing embodied carbon. At the heart of the structural innovation is a revolutionary application of Nitinol, a shape-memory alloy long proven in medical and aerospace settings, utilized in a building for the first time. Incorporated into exposed perimeter tension rods, Nitinol can flex and recover under intense seismic forces, helping return the building to its original position after an earthquake. This high-performance system embodies the College’s commitment to cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research and education made visible in the architecture itself.
Forensic/Retrofit/Rehabilitation
Transamerica Building Retrofit
Degenkolb Engineers
San Francisco, California, USA
At the iconic Transamerica Pyramid, evaluations identified repair and retrofit needs including corroded. The spire steel framing was corroded after 50 years of exposure to the elements. The building’s tapered shape put its upper levels at risk during a seismic event. To enhance seismic performance, Degenkolb applied performance-based design and advanced nonlinear analysis, concentrating retrofits at floors 45-50 and the spire, leveraging redundancy already built into the lower levels. The retrofit now exceeds the ASCE 41 Collapse Prevention objective under the 475-year seismic hazard, all while minimizing tenant disruption and keeping the project on budget and schedule. Limited building access required sizing every retrofit element to fit inside a standard elevator car and phased the work to suit an occupied building. By targeting only the floors most at risk, Degenkolb increased the Pyramid’s seismic performance while minimizing disruption to tenants and holding the schedule and budget.
Hangar One
KPFF Consulting Engineers
Mountain View, California, USA
Constructed by the U.S. Navy in the 1930s, Hangar One at Moffett Federal Airfield stands as one of the most recognizable and ambitious engineering achievements of its era. The massive approx. 340,000-square-foot structure presented extraordinary technical challenges due to its immense size, one-of-a-kind structural system, and existing materials. Rather than replacing or substantially altering the historic fabric, the project team pursued solutions that preserved the original structure while enabling it to meet modern performance expectations. Since 2013, KPFF has led the structural engineering effort, completing a comprehensive seismic, wind, gravity, and construction-load evaluation. The project addressed a range of exceptionally complex conditions, including deep foundations, a historic slab-on-grade, field-discovered steel conditions, façade integration, and rehabilitation of the 500-ton movable hangar doors. Advanced modeling, wind tunnel studies, and post-buckling analyses allowed targeted strengthening that selectively used new material while maintaining stability and preserving the hangar’s defining character for future generations.
UC San Francisco Health Sciences Instruction and Research, Seismic Improvements
Maffei Structural Engineering
San Francisco, California, USA
UC San Francisco’s Health Sciences Instruction and Research complex includes two 16-story laboratory towers totaling 430,000 square feet, along with separate stair towers, mechanical shafts, a shared elevator tower, and the adjacent Medical Sciences building. Built in 1963, the six connected-but-separate structures are divided by seismic joints at each floor. Over decades of renovation, extensive pipes, ducts, and other systems were added across these joints, creating risk of damage from relative movement during an earthquake. To reduce structural and nonstructural damage and limit research disruption, Maffei Structural Engineering designed a retrofit that included fluid viscous dampers between separate structures, strengthening of critical steel column splices, and seismic bracing for essential pipes and mechanical units. The scope was guided by probabilistic seismic assessment using Monte Carlo simulation and nonlinear response-history analysis, which helped evaluate retrofit options and inform the design of dampers, splice upgrades, and nonstructural improvements.
Resources Building Renovation
Buehler
Sacramento, California, USA
The Resources Building Renovation transformed a 17-story, 657,000-square-foot California state office tower into a modern, resilient workplace while preserving much of its 1964 structure. Investigations revealed unusual ASTM A440 steel framing and rare step-tapered pile foundations, complicating seismic retrofit design. Advanced nonlinear time-history analyses using 11 pairs of ground motions identified widespread nonductile weaknesses, showing that a conventional retrofit would require major strengthening throughout the building. Instead, the team developed a performance-based seismic retrofit using 128 fluid viscous dampers strategically placed to reduce seismic demands and limit changes to the existing frame. This approach eliminated roughly 90 percent of the steel-frame strengthening initially identified and reduced foundation improvements by about 50 percent. The retrofit improved seismic resilience, preserved the historic structure, reduced material use, and turned the exposed dampers into architectural features that visibly express the building’s upgraded performance.
Built to Serve
Halperin Park
HKS and WSP
Dallas, Texas, USA
When Interstate 35 was built through Dallas, TX in the 1950s, the highway divided Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood. Now, 70 years later a new five-acre park, built on an elevated concrete bridge deck that spans 100 feet over I-35, bridges that divide. The park features a multi-purpose pavilion building constructed out of glued laminated timber beams and columns with a cross-laminated timber roof deck. The use of mass timber in the pavilion lowered the weight on the supporting existing precast concrete bridge girders. This allowed for the added structural loading of the occupied deck on the pavilion roof. Across the park from the pavilion, a free-standing canopy consists of glued laminated beams curved in two directions and spanning 50 feet in an arch form over a performance stage. Serving as one of the first mass timber projects in Dallas, Halperin Park will be enjoyed by a reunited community for generations.
Davey SEED Campus
SmithGroup
Kent, Ohio, USA
The Davey Tree SEED Campus, which stands for Science, Employee Education and Development, transforms a former golf course in Kent, Ohio, into an approximately 200-acre campus for civil infrastructure, environmental stewardship, arboriculture research, and workforce training. The campus includes a 70,000-square-foot Research and Training Facility, greenhouses, research plots, utility line spans, a canopy walk, stormwater features, public garden areas, and a restored barn event space. The campus’s most dramatic structural feature is the two-story, 10,700-square-foot indoor climbing center, where long-span steel framing supports nine reconfigurable training structures and an overhead steel grid for safety harness systems. Additional structural ingenuity is demonstrated in the adaptive reuse of an 1890 timber barn, reconstructed atop a modern foundation utilizing steel transfer beams and composite floor construction. In its first year, SEED hosted more than 355 employees for training, 120 students, 2,100 visitors, and processed approximately 2,600 samples, demonstrating its value as a living laboratory.
Residential/Single and Multi-Family Homes
Seattle House
CKC
Seattle, Washington, USA
Seattle House, the largest multifamily development in downtown Seattle’s history, is a 1.3-million-square-foot mixed-use project with two 480-foot towers, eight subterranean parking levels, more than 1,100 residential units, and ground-floor retail. The structural system utilized resulted in a total concrete volume of 70,000 cubic yards and a rebar density of just 11.5 pounds per square foot—both exceptional for West Coast high-rise construction. The 8-inch-thick post-tensioned slabs include perimeter cantilevers extending up to 13 feet. The use of Grade 100 reinforcement and high-strength concrete (14,000 psi) minimized member sizes and maximized leasable space. A performance-based seismic design enabled the use of SFRC coupling beams within slender, eccentric tower cores. Nonlinear analyses informed key design choices related to wall geometry and material properties, achieving both ductility and cost-efficiency. The SFRC design reduced coupling beam rebar quantities by up to 40%, improving constructability and contributing to a significant carbon footprint reduction.
Hacienda Heights Apartments
Tipping
Richmond, California, USA
Hacienda Apartments in Richmond, California, is a 150-unit, 121,000-square-foot senior affordable housing complex made up of four six-story non-ductile reinforced concrete buildings built in 1964, before modern seismic codes. The team leveraged a creative, performance-based engineering approach, supported by advanced nonlinear shaking simulations, to develop a targeted seismic retrofit that fully harnessed the strength of the existing structures while minimizing construction cost and disruption. The innovative exterior bracing scheme allowed seismic improvements and interior renovations to proceed simultaneously, shortening the construction schedule and minimizing impacts to the residential units. While early schematic retrofit estimates were $4.63 million, the optimized design was priced at $3.9 million at bid, allowing $730,000 to be reallocated to other important project elements. The result is a resilient, cost-effective retrofit that restored a deteriorating complex to provide safe, affordable housing for Richmond seniors while demonstrating the value of performance-based engineering for existing buildings.
Una Residences
DeSimone Consulting Engineering
Miami, Florida, USA
Una Residences, a 47-story, 414,000-square-foot tower on Biscayne Bay, required a structural system that could support its sculptural, yacht-inspired form, constrained site, deep below-grade construction, and hurricane exposure. The reinforced concrete design balanced architectural vision with performance, constructability, and resilience. A defining feature is the tower’s load-bearing cantilever system. Starting about 190 feet above grade, the building expands westward beyond its footprint through cantilevered floor plates supported by reinforced concrete transfer elements and sloped columns. This approach preserves efficient load paths while maximizing waterfront views. The structure also supports one of South Florida’s deepest below-grade parking facilities despite difficult subsurface conditions and a high groundwater table. To resolve misaligned column grids between parking and residential levels, the design incorporated walking columns, kinked outrigger columns, transfer elements, and a sophisticated lateral-force-resisting system. Integration with the façade system enabled the building’s curved profile through custom GFRC slab-edge elements and innovative connection details.
Performance Design for Resilience
Samuel Merritt University – Oakland City Center
Tipping
Oakland, California, USA
Samuel Merritt University’s new 10-story, 250,000-square-foot campus supports expanded enrollment and helps address the Bay Area’s shortage of healthcare workers. Its structure uses an innovative BRB Mast frame lateral system that combines strong seismic performance, architectural flexibility, and cost efficiency. During design, four systems were studied: moment frames, a dual BRB plus moment frame system, a BRB-only frame, and a BRB Mast frame. The BRB Mast frame proved most effective, producing the lowest drift ratio—1.30%—with a uniform drift profile and no concentration of story deformations, improving seismic resilience over conventional approaches. The system pairs BRB devices with a vertical mast truss, which carries about 40% of the total base shear while remaining elastic. This helps distribute loads uniformly and simplifies design. Compared with a BRB-only scheme, it cut the number of BRB devices in half, improving constructability and reducing cost. Compact enough to fit within permanent walls, it also preserved interior planning flexibility.
Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission Wastewater Facility Perimeter Floodwall
STV
Newark, New Jersey, USA
The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission Wastewater Facility Perimeter Floodwall is a 2.5-mile-long barrier that protects the 140-acre Newark Bay Treatment Plant from catastrophic flooding. Developed after Hurricane Sandy as part of a broader resiliency program, it safeguards a critical facility serving about 1.5 million residents and treating up to 330 million gallons of wastewater daily. The floodwall creates a continuous perimeter integrated with plant structures, berms, and higher ground while allowing the facility to remain fully operational. Its design goes beyond typical criteria by using a 500-year flood basis, considering future sea-level rise, and addressing debris impact demands associated with the site’s industrial waterfront setting. Foundation systems vary to suit local geotechnical conditions, and major access points use large stored-in-place sliding floodgates, including spans of about 65 feet. Built within a 24/7 operating treatment plant, the project highlights resilient, constructability-focused design for essential public infrastructure.
SANY IROOTECH Headquarters
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Sany IROOTECH Headquarters is the first large-scale application of SOM’s patented Pin-Fuse seismic resilience technology in a modular steel hexagrid exoskeleton. The 205-meter tower combines a central concrete core with an exposed steel frame of concrete-filled tube members to provide stiffness and clear load paths. Designed to remain elastic under service loads and moderate earthquakes, it uses damage-avoidance engineering to introduce controlled ductility without relying on permanent yielding. During severe seismic events, Pin-Fuse friction joints dissipate energy through controlled sliding of steel end plates connected with high-strength slip-critical bolts in vertical slots. Belleville washers maintain bolt tension for predictable behavior, and after shaking, the frame recenters with minimal permanent deformation. Full-scale cyclic testing validated the system’s performance, showing how friction-based seismic design can reduce repair needs while improving long-term environmental and economic sustainability.