Steve Tipping and David Mar are pleased to announce that Leo Panian has been promoted to principal. Leo has succesfully led management efforts for many of Tipping Mar's innovative and ambitious projects, most notably the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Headquarters building, as well as UC Berkeley's Campbell Hall Seismic Replacement Building and Haas School of Business Addition and Expansion. Several of his projects, such as 2850 Telegraph and Pacific Place, have been recognized for excellence in structural engineering. Please join us in offering Leo our warmest congratulations!

On September 2, UC Berkeley celebrated the LEED Silver certification of Durant Hall, one of the campus's oldest and most beautiful buildings, recently renovated under the design leadership of Mark Cavagnero Associates Architects. Durant Hall was designed by architect John Galen Howard and built in 1911 to house the Boalt Law School and, later, the East Asian Library. Tipping Mar was the seismic consultant on the renovation project, which was completed in 2009.

Other Tipping Mar projects on the UC Berkeley campus include the Campbell Hall seismic replacement building, the additions and renovations to the Haas School of Business, Hearst Greek Theatre seismic and safety corrections, and seismic studies and peer reviews for Anna Head Housing and Lewis, Mulford, and Eshelman Halls.

A leader in sustainability-oriented design, Tipping Mar has nineteen LEED projects to date, including nine Platinum and eight Gold, and one certified Living Building.

The National Council of Structural Engineering Associations has just notified us that our entry, the Carquinez Senior Apartments, has been named one of three winners of the 2011 Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards in the forensic/renovation/retrofit/rehabilitation category. The awards ceremony will take place in Oklahoma City on October 22, when the Outstanding Projects will be announced.

In this ground-floor-only retrofit to this concrete 36,000 gsf historic building, Tipping Mar applied our innovative Relative-Strength Method, providing life-safety performance at the DBE hazard (475-year return period) and collapse prevention at the MCE hazard (2,475-year return period) for under $1,000,000 and with minimal disruption to the building's occupants.

Tipping Mar developed the Relative-Strength Method in our work for the FEMA-commissioned ATC 71-1: Guidelines for the Seismic Retrofit of Weak-Story Wood-Framed Buildings.

In the wake of the 5.8 magnitude East coast earthquake, Tipping Mar and architects Wiss, Janey, Elstner Associates Inc. will be working with the NPS to assess the damage, which includes a 4-foot-long and inch-wide crack in the Washington Monument's pyramidion. Read more on the NBC Washington and the National Parks Traveler sites.

This fall, Tipping Mar associate Mark Stevenson will be teaching "Structural Design in Timber" (CE 124) at UC Berkeley's College of Engineering. A senior-level course, it introduces students to the characteristics and properties of wood as a structural material and covers the design and detailing of structural elements and entire structures of wood. Mark will be incorporating fun diversions, including lab demos, guest speakers, and perhaps a field trip!

The June issue of Architectural Record features an article (Green at Its Core) about the San Francisco Public Utitlities Commission Headquarters going up at 525 Golden Gate Avenue. The article is a thorough discussion of how Tipping Mar's innovative and robust seismic frame is a key part of the project's sustainable strategy and its bid for LEED Platinum.