Not A Skyscaper
The picture above – courtesy of Irfan Haider of the Central Park Conservancy – shows the realization of another of our designs
Journal
Our work with old buildings has us studying a lot of different topics in addition to structural engineering – for example, architecture, history, and historic preservation – and we like sharing stories about what we’ve found.
It’s Not Blue
That’s a drawing from 1837 of the new Customs House – now Federal Hall – being constructed at the northeast corner of
First Thoughts
To continue with the “old skyscraper” theme, one of the great joys of research is seeing an idea taking shape in
Mixing Research and Practice
While I was in Seattle for the APT conference, something interesting happened. Roughly three years after The Structure of Skyscrapers in
It Looked Familiar: Mixer and Matcher
Just to confuse things, sometimes the artists use buildings from cities other than New York. Above, the Tribune Tower has made
It Looked Familiar: Mix and Match
There’s an old joke that Metropolis and Gotham City – the homes, in DC Comics, of Superman and Batman, respectively
Parapets!
We have a new building-inspection rule in New York, as of last month, requiring annual inspection of parapets on pretty much all buildings.
Windmills
This – “NY tentatively approves 3 offshore wind farms, including Ravenswood project” – is good news. The way to get
Branding, Part 2: Some Details
There are hard launches, where everything new goes live publicly – think “New Coke” – and there are soft launches,
Branding, Part 1: Something Old, Something New, Something Blue.
We are finally ready to unveil the new logo for Old Structures Engineering! We aren’t changing who we are or
Part Of A Good Idea
I’ve posted quite a few photos from Berenice Abbott’s “Changing New York” project of the mid-1930s, artistcialy showing what was
The Longevity Of Graffiti
I recently had cause to look at the underside of my parents’ coffee table. They bought a marble top in
It Looked Familiar: Triangulation
Above, a rooftop conversation from Marvel Comics. The roof we’re standing on is nondescript except for the antenna on the
It’s Not Obvious But It Should Be
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, a relatively small federal agency, has issued a draft policy statement on the topic of
A Minor Pet Peeve
Just because something is at or near a foundation does not mean it automatically has anything to do with settlement. I’ve
Semi-Clever
That’s the underside of a church tower roof. It’s a shallow hip roof with (by our analytic-design standards) too-small hip
Incrementalism
“Eric Adams’s Big Housing Plan Is 100 Small Ideas in a Trenchcoat” from Curbed is, in my opinion, just about
Elastic Deformation
Part of the APT conference that just ended was the preservation engineering Student Competition, which this year was about masonry arches. See
Road Trip to Seattle
I was at the annual conference of the Association for Preservation Technology last week, and this was the first time I have
It Looked Familiar: An Odd Angle
Above, Marvel Comics shows us people panicking after seeing a monster, running on the Brooklyn Bridge roadway. The tower is