Resource Guide (Tall Buildings)

CASE BuSinESS PrACtiCES business issues Risk Management: Elements and Tools

By R. John Aniol, P.E., S.E.

Managing risks – from project initiation through construction completion – is critical to achieving project success and maintaining key client relationships. The Council of American Structural Engineers’ (CASE) vision is to be the leading provider of risk management and business practice resources within the structural engineering profession by improving quality, enhancing management practices and reducing professional liability. To assist structural engineering firms in reducing risk, CASE developed the Ten Foundations for Risk Management. The first five foundations pertain to business practices, while the last five pertain to project management items.

1 – Culture

Create a culture of managing risk and pre-

venting claims: Culture is difficult to define in an organization but is a key element of any firm’s character, providing a basis for the decision-making process and operating procedures. To effectively cultivate culture, a firm must employ strategic planning (involving staff and clients), and commit to focus a substantial portion of the cultural effort on quality. High-quality client service is achieved when it is “built-in, not bolted on” and infused throughout an organization from the top-down. Producing high quality work will result in satisfied clients who provide opportunities for future business, reduced legal claims, more satisfied employees and higher profit margins.

2 – Prevention and Proactivity

Employ preventive techniques: CASE has recently released two tools to assist the design professional in developing risk prevention processes within the firm. CASE Tool 2-3, Employee Evaluations, is intended to assist the structural engineering office in the task of evaluating employee performance. The evaluations not only provide a method to assess employee performance, but also serve as an integral part of the company’s risk management program. Tool 2-4, Risk Management Plan, is a document to aid the project manager in implementing a comprehensive process that will identify risks, estimate the probability of occurrence and consequence of the risks, and create a proactive plan to mitigate the risks. The tool is divided into four sections: 1) Risk & Opportunity Identification: CASE Tool 2-1, Risk Evaluation Checklist, can be used to indentify risks. In addition, a list of sample risks is provided. 2) Risk & Opportunity Qualification/Quantification: A risk assessment matrix is used to determine the integrated risk assessment. 3) Risk Strategy; Risk and Opportunity Leveraging Plans: This plan can both identify proactive and reactive processes. 4) Risk Management Process: Includes kick-off meetings, risk management plan, coordination meetings and appraise and control. The Risk Management Plan is element three of Tool 3-4, Project Work Plan Template.

3 – Planning

Plan to be claim-free: Client evaluation, project type, staff hiring and retention, comprehensive training program and quality assurance all contribute to reducing risk. Prepare a project work plan to document project delivery strategies and communicate them to the project team members. CASE Tool 3-4, Project Work Plan Template, serves a guide for the project manager to develop the following elements of the work plan: project metrics, financial management plan, risk management plan, resource management plan, design management plan, documentation management plan, quality management plan, and construction phase management plan.

4 – Communication

Communicate to match expectations with

perceptions: Understanding the client and owner’s goals is the first step in effective communication, as proactive planning leads to seamless interaction. Communication must flow in both directions throughout the project team. Utilize communication tools including project status reports, meeting agendas, action item/coordination lists and design criteria document.

5 – Education

Educate all the players in the process: Effective training is the key element to success. Consider a comprehensive training program including leadership skills, project management skills and technical skills. Establish a mentoring program to enable seasoned staff to nurture the career development of less experienced staff. Ascertain owner’s expectations about coordination and completeness of the contract documents, so risk can be understood.

6 – Scope

Develop and manage a clearly defined scope

of services: A clearly defined scope establishes a firm’s responsibilities (avoiding misunderstandings), serves as a basis for compensation and additional services, and should be used in the development of the project work plan. Discuss the scope of the work with the entire project staff, to ensure they have a full understanding of the required work – avoiding unnecessary work and identifying when additional services are appropriate.

7 – Compensation

Prepare and negotiate fees that allow for

quality and profit: Adequate fees allow for adequate time to produce quality contract documents and models. Negotiate fees together with scope of services, so the client understands what is included in the basic services. Weigh contract fee versus risks to determine if the proposed fee is commensurate with scope, client, project type, complexity, schedule, delivery method and profit strategy.

8 – Contracts

Identify onerous contract language: A well-written, fair and complete contract can minimize risk. Review each contract for onerous provisions; refer to CASE Tool 8-1, Contract Review. It is preferred to use in-house standard contracts, or standard contracts prepared by CASE or AIA, as a starting point of negotiations. Review the prime agreement between your client and the owner. Consider negotiating a limitation

of liability appropriate for the scope and fee. Ensure that the terms of the contract are insurable under the fi rm’s professional liability insurance. “For example, most insurance policies do not provide for the defense of an indemnitee, even though that term is often found in indemnity agreements. A good contract will recognize that professional services are being provided – not a product – and therefore perfection cannot be warranted by the service provider.”

9 – Contract Documents

Produce quality contract documents: Th e contract documents and the model are the deliverables that communicate the design intent to the construction team. In an eff ort to raise the document quality bar, CASE recently released CASE Tool 9-2, Quality Assurance Plan, which provides guidance to the structural engineering professional for developing a comprehensive detailed Quality Assurance Plan. A well-developed and implemented Quality Assurance Plan ensures consistent high-quality service on all projects, and includes: 1) Quality Control Review, 2) Firm-wide Standards, and 3) Construction Quality Assurance. Th e quality control review may consist of three elements: Design (Jury) Review, Engineering Review and Construction Document Review. Comprehensive fi rm-wide standards (consisting of design/analysis standards {guidelines}, documentation standards and construction administration standards) enable staff to gain historical fi rm-wide benefi ts while providing the resources to ensure the design and documentation are clear, concise, accurate and consistent. In addition, CASE Tool 9-1, A Guideline to Addressing Coordination and Completeness of Structural Construction Documents, is a great reference tool for preparing quality construction documents. to requests for information, including issuing sketches and maintaining an RFI log. Develop submittal review guidelines that outline the completeness of specific submittal review, including the use of the appropriate submittal review stamp and submittal log procedures. Develop guidelines for field observation and reporting procedures, and review of testing reports. Specify and request a submittal schedule to adequately allocate submittal review resources. Reply to RFIs and return submittals within the contractually-specified time to avoid a claim for a delay in the process. Review specifications for specified submittal components. Request specified yet incomplete submittal information promptly upon receipt of submittal. Establish a collaborative (non-adversarial) relationship with fabricators and contractors in order to work together to achieve a successful completion of the project.

Summary

By focusing on the recommendations of the CASE Ten Foundations of Risk Management, fi rms will achieve successful project completion through reduced professional liability; in turn, increased fi rm viability will enable the fi rm to enjoy the benefi ts of a higher-quality client experience. CASE has developed more than 16 standard agreements, more than 10 guidelines/commentaries and more than 20 tools. A complete list of all the CASE Contracts, Guidelines and Tools can be found at www.acec.org/case. For more information regarding specifi cs of CASE tools contact Stacy Bartoletti, Toolkit Committee Chair, sbartoletti@degenkolb. com. All tools are free for CASE member fi rms. Tools are also available to non-member fi rms for nominal fees. If you are interested in joining CASE, refer to the web-site or contact Heather Talbert, htalbert@acec.org. ▪

R. John Aniol, P.E., S.E. is a Vice President in the Dallas offi ce of Th ornton Tomasetti. He is serving as a member of the CASE Toolkit Committee. He can be reached at janiol@thorntontomasetti.com.

Also see: Douglas Ashcraft, P.E., S.E., Foundations for Risk Management, STRUCTURE magazine, August 2005, p. 41-42.

10 – Construction Phase

Provide services to complete the risk management process: Construction quality assurance is an important element of the quality assurance plan since it is the final step in the process (and is best performed by the staff responsible for the design). Develop preconstruction meeting agendas to proactively discuss and resolve key issues. Develop guidelines for replying

Software ADAPT Corporation

Phone: 650-306-2400 Web: www.adaptsoft.com Product: ADAPT-ABI and ADAPT-Edge Description: ABI 2012 now supports modeling of building frames to calculate differential shortening of supports, required super-elevation of levels, and longterm deformation of critical structural elements. Edge is a new product that models and analyzes complete concrete buildings with or without post-tensioning; integrates detailed floor and foundation system design with lateral stability analysis.

Devco Software, Inc.

Phone: 541-426-5713 Web: www.devcosoftware.com Product: LGBEAMER v8 Description: Analyze and design cold-formed cee, channel and zee sections. Uniform, concentrated, partial span and axial loads. Single and multi-member designs. 2007 NASPEC (2009 IBC) compliant. ProTools include shearwalls, framed openings, X-braces, joists and rafters.

GT STRUDL

Phone: 404-894-2260 Web: www.gtstrudl.gatech.edu Product: GT STRUDL Description: Structural Design & Analysis software from the Georgia Tech - CASE Center offers linear and nonlinear static and dynamic analysis features including response spectrum, transient and pushover analyses, plastic hinges, discrete dampers, base isolation, and nonlinear connections. New multiprocessor solvers enable the solution of static/dynamic models with over 300,000 DOF.

Nemetschek Scia

Phone: 877-808-7242 Web: www.scia-online.com Product: Scia Engineer Description: Scia Engineer links structural modeling, analysis, design, drawings and reports in ONE program, so a change anywhere is reflected everywhere. Centralize design tasks with static, nonlinear, and dynamic analysis. Design to multiple codes and for multiple materials. Plug into BIM with IFC support, and links with Revit, Tekla, and others.

POSTEN Engineering Systems

Phone: 510-275-4750 Web: www.postensoft.com Product: POSTEN Multistory V-9 Description: The most efficient & comprehensive post-tensioned concrete software in the world that, not only automatically designs the tendons, drapes, as well as columns for you, but also produces highly efficient, cost saving, sustainable designs with automatic documentation of material savings for leed. No guessing, no fiddling, no time wasting. Powers Fasteners

Phone: 985-807-6666 Web: www.powers.com Product: Post-installed Anchors and Fasteners Description: FREE – Anchor Design Software – Powers Design Assist. Helps tall building designers deal with the complexity of ACI 318 Appendix D. Powers Fasteners now has 21 Product Code Compliance ICC ES Reports! Visit our website to download the software.

RISA Technologies

Phone: 949-951-5815 Web: www.risa.com Product: RISAFloor Description: RISAFloor and RISA-3D form an unrivaled building analysis and design package. Modeling has never been easier whether you’re doing a graphical layout, importing a BIM model (from Autodesk Revit Structure), or prefer spreadsheets. Full code checks and optimization for six different material types makes RISA your first choice in buildings.

S-FRAME Software Inc.

Phone: 203-421-4800 Web: www.s-frame.com Product: S-CONCRETE™ Description: A highly interactive section analysis, design and detailing tool for reinforced concrete beams, columns and walls to multiple design codes (ACI, CSA, BS, UBC). Contact us for a free trial to see for yourself why some of the world’s top tall buildings design firms use S-CONCRETE.

Standards Design Group, Inc

Phone: 800-366-5585 Web: www.standardsdesign.com Product: Wind Loads on Stuctures 4 Description: Software performs all the wind load computations in ASCE 7-98, 02 or 05, Section 6 and ASCE 7-10, Chapters 26-31. The software allows the user to “build” structures within the system; built-in version of the wind speed map(s) allows the user to enter a wind speed, and numerous specialty calculators.

StructurePoint

Phone: 847-966-4357 Web: www.StructurePoint.org Product: Concrete Design Software from StructurePoint, Formerly PCA software group Description: Column, Slab, Mats, Beam and Wall programs for analysis and design of reinforced concrete members. Particularly suited for tall building investigation and optimization. Simple and accurate software tools to save you time and speed your design effort. StructurePoint is your gateway to vast resources of the cement and concrete industry.

All Resource Guides and Updates for the 2012 Editorial Calendar are now available on the website, www.STRUCTUREmag.org. Listings are provided as a courtesy. STRUCTURE® magazine is not responsible for errors. Suppliers CTS Cement Manufacturing Corporation

Phone: 800-929-3030 Web: www.ctscement.com Product: Professional-Grade Constr. Cement Products Description: Use Rapid Set® cement products for concrete repairs, restoration and new construction, and achieve high durability, fast strength gain and structural or drive-on strength in one-hour. Install concrete structures and industrial-size floors using Type-K shrinkage-compensating cement products with no curling, no drying shrinkage cracking and no intermediate saw cut joints.

Decon USA Inc.

Phone: 707-996-5954 Web: www.deconusa.com Product: Decon® Studrails® and Jordahl Anchor Channels Description: Studrails for punching shear enhancement at slab-column connections. Produced to the specifications of ASTM A1044, ACI 318-08, and ICC ES 2494. Hot rolled Anchor Channels are embedded in concrete and used to securely transfer high loads. Anchor Channels with welded-on rebar or corner pieces are available.

Pile Dynamics, Inc.

Phone: 216-831-6131 Web: www.pile.com/ Product: Systems for Quality Assurance of Deep Found. Description: PDI testing systems include Pile Driving Analyzer® (for Dynamic Load Testing and Pile Driving Monitoring), Pile Integrity Tester, Thermal Integrity Profiler and Cross-Hole Analyzer (investigate integrity of drilled shafts and other cast in place piles), PIR (installation monitoring of augered piles), more.

Simpson Strong-Tie

Phone: 925-560-9000 Web: www.strongtie.com Product: Anchor Tiedown System (ATS) and Strong Frame Ordinary Moment Frame Description: ATS system anchors stacked shearwalls in multi-story wood-frame buildings while compensating for construction shrinkage. In addition to coupling take-up devices (CTUDs), we have added expanding take-up devices of steel and aluminum (TUDs and ATUDs). Ordinary moment frame is a cost-effective alternative. Available in 368 pre-engineered options or custom sizes, frames include 100% bolted connections, requiring no field welding. Newest offering – two-story ordinary moment frame that accommodates openings up to 18 feet tall per story and 24 feet wide.

Weyerhaeuser

Phone: 888-453-8358 Web: www.woodbywy.com Product: Trus Joist® Engineered Lumber Products Description: Providing strength, consistency, and long lengths, Weyerhaeuser Trus Joist engineered lumber products solve multiple design challenges in modern buildings. Available up to 30 feet long, TimberStrand® LSL studs enable stable tall walls over 10 feet high; Parallam® PSL beams and TJI® Joists have long span capability for large open spaces.

Joachim Gotsche Giaver

Champion of Structural Registration Laws

By Richard G. Weingardt, P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, F.ACEC, D.Sc.h.c.

Joachim G. Giaver always seemed to be the right person, in the right place, at the right time, beginning with his immigration to the U.S. in 1882, one year after graduating from one of Norway’s most renowned civil engineering colleges. Upon arriving in America, he was immediately employed by the Pacific Railroad Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. A year later, he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to work for the Shiffler Bridge Company, a J.P. Morgan venture newly founded to build bridges and furnish structural steel for all types of complex structures and buildings. The company had just secured the contract to furnish the structural steel for the framework of the Statue of Liberty. After his stint with Shiffler, Giaver moved to Chicago to design state-of-the-art structures for the 1893 Columbian World’s Exposition. There he met and befriended the Fair’s lead architect, Daniel Burnham (1846-1912), who along with his colleagues shortly thereafter embarked on a long and impressive run as designers of landmark buildings and skyscrapers nationwide. By the time Giaver began thinking of opening his own consulting engineering firm in 1915, commerce through the newly opened Panama Canal was having an major impact on the U.S. economy overall. Foreign trade soared to a record high, much of it also sparked by the multi-nation war developing in Europe. One year later, when Giaver formed a partnership with former Burnham associate Fred Dinkelberg to provide architectural and engineering services, the future looked promising indeed. Joachim was born on August 15, 1856, in the tiny hamlet of Jovik, near Tromso, Norway, the ninth child of 13, four of whom would not make it to adulthood. He was only two when his newborn brother Jens, Jr. died in 1858, and was barely eight when his 16-year-old sister Anna and three-yearold brother Carl both died in the same year, 1864. Those experiences tempered him for similar tragedies that he and his wife would experience with their own offspring years later in America. Joachim’s father Jens H. Giaver, who was from a prominent Norwegian family, was a major landholder in northern Norway and a leading figure in its fishing industry. His mother Hanna Brigitte (Holmboe) Giaver was in charge of the home-schooling of Joachim and his siblings in preparation for college. Joachim’s university choice was Trondhjem Technical College at Trondheim, Norway, nearly 500 miles (as the crow flies) southwest of his hometown. It was next to a sizeable body of water connected to the Norwegian Sea and surrounded by high mountains, offering many opportunities for outdoor activities like boating, hiking and climbing. On September 3, 1885, Giaver married Louise Caroline Schmedling, a native of Trondheim then living in New York. He was 29 and she was 21. They would have eight children, three of whom died as infants. Their five surviving offspring were two daughters, Astrid (Mrs. Ralph Holmboe) and Brigit (Mrs. Amasa Bull), and three sons, Erling, Finn, and Einar William “Bill.” Erling went into the construction supply business, Finn became a civil engineer like his father, and Bill studied engineering at Georgia Tech prior to a varied career first in professional football and the movies, and finally in the construction industry. Around the time of Joachim G. Giaver. his marriage, Giaver Courtesy of Library of was named chief engineer of Shiffler. In his five years in that posiCongress Prints and Photographs LC-B22206-2. tion, he was in charge of the design and construction of several large bridges, including two in Pittsburgh – one over the Allegheny River and the other crossing the Monongahela River – and numerous multi-story structures. By far, Giaver’s most noteworthy Shiffler assignment was producing the structural framework for the Statue of Liberty. His work involved design computations, detailed fabrication and construction drawings, and oversight of construction. In completing his engineering for the statue’s frame, Giaver worked from drawings and sketches produced by the famous French structural engineer Gustave Eiffel (18321923). Not only would Eiffel be remembered for the statue’s framework, he would, soon after it debuted, design and build the monumental Tower that still bears his name for the extravagant 1889 Paris Centennial Exposition. Three-and-a-half years after President Grover Cleveland officially dedicated the Statue on October 28, 1886, President Benjamin Harrison signed into law confirmation of Chicago as the location for the Columbian Exposition, in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus discovering America. Engineers, architects, contractors and building suppliers from around the country took notice. A considerable amount of innovation, design and new construction would be required – and fast. Almost immediately, companies from all over the country began setting up operations in Chicago to get in on the action. With them came many leading structural engineers, including two daring ones from Pittsburgh, both still in their early thirties, Joachim Giaver and George Ferris (1859-1896). Of course, Ferris would erect for the 1893 Exposition the greatest observation wheel the world had ever seen. In addition to the frantic and massive construction frenzy that the Fair generated, Chicago in the late 1880s and early 1890s

received his final papers as a citizen of the United States in 1896. In 1898, Giaver rejoined Burnham’s company as its chief engineer, a position he held for 18 years. During that time, Giaver helped hone modern skyscraper design into a fine art, moving engineering solutions away from cast iron and wrought iron frameworks on spread footings to more costeffective structural steel bearing on caisson foundations. Among his Museum of Science and Industry (Columbian Exposition’s Palace of Fine Arts), Chicago, IL. Courtesy of Robert B. Johnson. more popular inventions was the “Giaver Belled-Caisson” footing. While with Burnham, Giaver was was experiencing a commercial construc- in charge of over 400 of the largest buildtion boom with longer-term ramifications. ings in the U.S., among them the Flatiron, Although the 1885 Home Insurance Building Gimbel, Maiden Lane and Equitable in New stood less than 150 feet tall, its load-carrying, York City; the Field Museum, Continental iron-steel framework earned it the label of National Bank, Railway Exchange and the world’s first skyscraper. Other notable Conway Field in Chicago; the Union Station buildings with steel skeletons instead of the and Post Office in Washington D.C.; the traditional masonry bearing wall construc- Frick, Oliver, Smithfield and First National tion that were built or being completed Bank in Pittsburgh; the May Company in when Giaver arrived in Chicago included Cleveland; the Wanamaker and Land Title the Rookery, Tacoma, Rand McNally, Old in Philadelphia; and the dome of the Mount Colony, Reliance, Marquette and Republic, Wilson Observatory in California. each with its own legitimate claim to being Prior to resigning from Burhnam’s firm the nation’s first true steel-framed “skyscraper.” and opening his own consulting engineering Shortly after moving to Chicago in 1891, business, Giaver began questioning the laws Giaver became the assistant chief engineer licensing structural engineers in the State of for the Fair, for which Burnham was the lead Illinois. Up until that time, only architects architect in charge of all construction. Serving could stamp and seal drawings for obtaining Giaver well in this position with Burnham’s building permits. Giaver was the leader of the group was his experience in designing com- engineers who got this changed, securing the plicated foundation systems for difficult soils, passage of a bill by the Illinois State Legislature such as the mostly unstable swampland of the in 1915 that allowed structural engineers to Exposition’s site. Also coming into play was practice their profession on equal terms with his extensive experience with state-of-the-art architects in Illinois. This new licensing law wind bracing systems for complicated struc- made it possible for building plans to be lawtural frameworks, which the bulk of the Fair’s fully approved if bearing the signature of a buildings also required. professionally registered structural engineer. Among Giaver’s most noteworthy A year later, Giaver formed his partnership “White City” buildings for the Fair were with Dinkelberg to provide architecture and its Administrative Building and the Palace engineering services. The most notable work of Fine Arts. For the latter’s dome, Giaver of their partnership, finished a few months designed a unique three-hinge arch, which before Giaver’s death, was the 35 East Wacker at that time was the largest truss of its kind Building. Also known as the Jewelers’ Building, in the world, having a span of 368 feet. the 40-story, 522-foot-tall East Wacker strucThe structure survives today as the Chicago ture was the tallest building outside of New Museum of Science and Industry adjacent to York City when completed in 1927. It had Lake Michigan in Hyde Park. Following the commanding views of the Chicago River and Exposition, Giaver was engaged in the general a special elevator for individual automobiles so contracting business from 1893 to 1896, and that jewelers could remain in their cars with served as the bridge designer for the Sanitary their gems while going back and forth to work. District of Chicago from 1896 to 1898. In The building is listed on the National Register the latter position he designed various bridges of Historic Places as part of the Michiganover the main Chicago Drainage Canal. It was Wacker Historic District, and is designated a while with the Sanitary District that Giaver Chicago Landmark.

Jewelers’ Building (35 Wacker Building), Chicago, IL. Courtesy of Robert B. Johnson.

In 1920, Giaver was decorated with the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olaf, 1st Class, by His Majesty King Haakon VII of Norway, in recognition of his prominence as a structural engineer and his activities on behalf of Norwegians worldwide. For leisure, Giaver was an enthusiastic yachtsman, winning numerous prizes racing his boats on Lake Michigan. His favorite yacht was named “Mavourneen” – Irish Gaelic for “marvelous beauty” or “my sweet one.” Giaver was a trustee of the Norwegian American Hospital in Chicago, president of the Structural Engineers Association, a director of the Western Society of Engineers, president of the Norwegian Engineers Association, president of the Chicago Norske Klub and vice-commodore of the Columbia Yacht Club. He was also an active member in Svenska Klubben, Chicago Athletic Club, and Chicago Yacht Club. Giaver passed away on May 29, 1925, twoand-a half months shy of his 69th birthday.▪ Richard G. Weingardt, P.E. (rweingardt@weingardt.com), is Chairman of Richard Weingardt Consultants, Inc. in Denver, Colorado. He is the author of ten books, including Circles in the Sky: The Life and Times of George Ferris and Engineering Legends, both of which feature the exploits of great American structural engineers who had significant influence on the progress of the nation. His latest book, Empire Man, is about Homer Balcom, structural engineer for the Empire State Building.