Commercial Structural Engineering

Commercial

Owners, developers, architects and general contractors for new and existing buildings.

Commercial projects come to us through architects and general contractors as often as through owners. Typical assignments are the structural package for a new retail, office or warehouse building, foundations and framing for a pre-engineered metal building, upfits and change-of-use conversions that add loads an older structure was not designed for, and condition assessments a buyer or lender wants before closing.

Typical work

• Structural design for new construction and shell buildings
• Pre-engineered and metal building foundations and framing
• Renovation and change-of-use design for tenant upfits
• Structural assessment and due diligence for purchasers and lenders
• Foundation repair and underpinning for commercial buildings
• Retaining walls and site structures for parking and grading
• Mezzanines, equipment platforms and rooftop unit supports
• Loading dock, canopy and storefront framing

Institutional

Schools, churches, healthcare, multifamily communities, HOAs and property managers.

Institutional owners hold their buildings for decades, so the questions are about keeping them in service: whether a sanctuary roof can take a mechanical unit, how a classroom wing is added without disturbing the original, what a bowed foundation wall in a clinic needs, and how a community's retaining walls and common structures should be repaired. We report to boards and property managers in terms they can act on.

Typical work

• Structural assessment of existing facilities
• Additions and renovations to schools and churches
• New building structural design for campuses
• Foundation repair at multifamily and clinic buildings
• Rooftop equipment and mechanical unit supports
• Gymnasium, sanctuary and assembly roof framing
• HOA retaining wall and common structure repair
• Reserve study support with structural condition findings

Public infrastructure

Municipalities, counties and agencies, with the contractors who build for them.

Public work is mostly site structures rather than office buildings: boardwalks and fishing piers over wetlands and water, picnic shelters, restrooms and amphitheater stages in parks, salt storage sheds and maintenance buildings at public works yards, and floating and fixed docks at marinas. We prepare the drawings for public bidding, respond to bidder questions, and review the contractor's submittals during construction.

Typical work

• Pedestrian boardwalks and fishing piers over wetlands and water
• Park shelters, restrooms and amenity structures
• Salt storage and maintenance buildings
• Marina docks, gangways and pile anchorage
• Cast-in-place retaining walls for public grounds
• Bid documents, addenda and submittal review
• Condition assessment of existing public structures