High Rise Site Visit
Most of my time at work this summer is spent doing AutoCAD, producing drawings for the structural engineering firm that I'm co-oping with. Yesterday, I had a little change of pace. Next to my company's 18-story office building, a 29-story building is being constructed. My company is doing the structural design for this building, which can conveniently be observed from the windows of my office. Since the contractor was preparing to pour the concrete slab for the 12th floor, I went over for a site visit with the engineer in my office who did much of the design for the high-rise.
Site visits are always a lot of fun for a co-op. It gives you a chance to get out of the office and see how things go from paper drawings to real-life, full-scale structures. It was helpful on this visit to see the mix of standard reinforcing steel and post-tensioning cables. The engineer did a great job of explaining the design work behind all the features that make this particular building stand up and look like the owner and architect want it to look. You always meet interesting contractors and iron workers on visits like this, too.
Although I have spent a good deal of time on construction sites of various kinds, this was my first time to a high-rise building. I'll have a much better understanding of what is going on in this adjacent building as I watch it go up floor by floor, week after week.
Jun 5, 2008 9:39 PM
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