One Vanderbilt Opens: NYC’s Tallest Midtown Office Tower

After four years of intensive structural design and another four years of extensive construction observation and special inspection, Severud Associates celebrated on September 14, 2020, the opening of One Vanderbilt, a state-of-the-art tower that at 1,401 ft. in height is the tallest office building in Midtown and the second tallest office tower in all of New York City.  Located immediately to the west of Grand Central Terminal, the building joins lofty neighbors such as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park as a prominent feature of the Manhattan skyline.

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Severud Associates Promotions

The experienced and expert engineering staff at Severud Associates is our most important asset. Therefore, we are proud to announce the following promotions: David J. Bretl, Robert A. Calderon, Meghan T. Krupka, Morgan M. Miller, Olivia B. Parker, John W. Puleo, and Kyle M. Roshberg have advanced to the level of Associate; Andrew J. Aumiller, John Lu, and Kyle M. MacDonald have progressed to the position of Senior Engineer. All have shown a deep commitment to their profession and the firm.

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Severud Associates Promotions

The experienced and expert engineering staff at Severud Associates is our most important asset. Therefore, we are proud to announce that J. Benjamin Alper has been named Associate Principal and Stephen Reichwein has been elevated to Senior Associate. Both have demonstrated a deep commitment to their profession and the firm.

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FAA Air Traffic Control Towers

At the beginning of his presidency, John F. Kennedy had many lofty goals:  End the cold war and achieve world peace; bolster the civil rights of minorities and improve the economic plight of the poor; and, of course, explore outer space and put an astronaut on the moon.  Less well known but equally ambitious was his desire to raise the quality of the architectural design of federal buildings.  Kennedy’s definition of this category was broad and not limited to courthouses and museums.  He included any structure built by the government to serve the public, even buildings used by the FAA at airports.  As a result of the president’s commitment to this goal, I.M. Pei was chosen in April of 1962 to develop a new prototype for air traffic control towers.  Three months later—57 years ago this summer—Pei chose Severud Associates to perform the necessary structural engineering.

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Endless House

Early in its history, Severud Associates gained a reputation for efficient and economical structural designs for housing projects in New York City and the surrounding suburbs.  The Dyckman, Lillian Wald, and Elliott Houses in Manhattan; the Breukelen and Farragut Houses in Brooklyn; and the Bronx River and Gun Hill Road Houses in the Bronx are just a few of the apartment buildings that were in its portfolio by the mid-20th century.  The firm’s practical analysis approach, innovative framing systems, and studies of alternative materials were so successful, in fact, that Fred N. Severud and architect Joseph H. Abel authored a book on the subject, Apartment Houses, in 1947.  Most of these residential buildings were very large and strictly rectilinear so it might at first seem surprising that in May 1959—60 years ago this spring—Severud Associates was chosen by Frederick Kiesler to engineer his Endless House. (more…)

Charlotte Coliseum

On “Selection Sunday,” the NCAA named teams from Duke, Gonzaga, North Carolina, Virginia, and other top-ranked schools to play in its 2019 Division I men’s basketball tournament, known by most and loved by many as “March Madness.”  Sixty-eight teams will play 67 games over three weeks before a national champion is crowned (somewhat ironically) in April.  The tournament has come a long way since 1951 when for the first time 16 teams were chosen for the tournament (it had been only eight previously).  That same year—more than 68 years ago this spring—Severud Associates was chosen to provide structural engineering for the Charlotte Coliseum in North Carolina, a venue that would eventually play host to 13 NCAA national tournaments.

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Severud Associates Promotions

The experienced and expert engineering staff at Severud Associates is our most important asset. Therefore, we are proud to announce the following promotions:  Mohamed Arafa and Muhammad T. Rahal have been elevated to the level of Senior Associate; and Alexander H. Azero, Phillip R. Bellis, Stacey N. Hursen, Daniel Ki, and Kevin C. Norton, have progressed to the position of Senior Engineer.

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Severud Associates Celebrates 90 Years of Engineering Excellence

Award-Winning Structural Engineers Continue to Make Lasting Mark on Skyline and Profession

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University of Pennsylvania – Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology

State-of-the-art on the inside and out, the 78,000 square-foot Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology enables researchers from different disciplines to interact with each other and go beyond the traditional boundaries of science.  Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular scale, benefits society in myriad ways such as developing targeted drug delivery systems, finding new methods for generating and storing electricity, and improving the performance of personal computers.  In March 2010—eight years ago this spring—Severud Associates was retained to provide structural engineering services for the Singh Center, which the University of Pennsylvania hoped would visually represent both the large scale of its urban campus and the mathematical precision of nanotechnology.

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Severud Associates Promotions

The experienced and expert engineering staff at Severud Associates is our most important asset, and we are proud to announce the following promotions.  J. Benjamin Alper, Matthew Peitz, and Daniel Surrett have been elevated to the level of Senior Associate; Jesse Cooper, Jack Gainey, and Andrew Moss have advanced to Associate; and David Bretl, Robert Calderon, Peter Fetzer, Morgan Miller, Olivia Parker, John Puleo, and Kyle Roshberg, have progressed to Senior Engineer.

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