Date: January 29, 2025
Time: 5:30-8:30 PM PT
Location: Father LeRoux, S.J. Conference Center, Seattle University
901 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
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The annual January Student Showcase is SEAW’s premier, annual event for student networking. If you or your firm are interested in networking with students from both the University of Washington (UW) and Seattle University (SU), this event is for you. Don’t let this opportunity for community involvement pass you by!
Seattle University Presentations:
- Seismic Evaluation of Villa Apartments – by Helene Babalis, Harold Nguyen, Paola Binuya, Nicolas Chantorn
- Seismic Evaluation of North Service Center – by Nick Schmidt-Bailey, Shaelyn Yoshida, Keerthana Kalla, William Katsiotis, Kian Khorrami
University of Washington Presentations:
- Engineers in Action University of Washington: 2024 Bridge Updates and Upcoming Project – by Anna Klein
Agenda:
5:30 – 6:30 PM Registration/ Student-Company Networking
6:30 PM Onwards: Dinner Service
6:45 – 7: 00 PM Welcome/ Announcements
7:00 – 8:00 PM Student Showcase Presentations
8:00 – 8:30 PM Closing Remarks/Mingling
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Seattle Winter Social Showcases Committee Opportunities | | |
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Patrick Lindblom
Seattle Chapter
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On Thursday, December 5, the Seattle Chapter held a Winter Social and Committee Showcase at the Fremont Brewery. It was a great opportunity for members to connect and get an overview of the outstanding work that SEAW’s committees have been involved with.
The night was kicked off with happy hour and socializing, then each committee chair was given time to present the accomplishments of their committees and how someone could get involved. Then we moved on to a tic-tac-toe game that encouraged members to connect with committee chairs for a chance to win prizes. Paolo Bourdeau, Davis Wright, and Evan Jordan were the winners of the game and took home gift cards to help with their holiday shopping.
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Disaster Prep and Response Committee members Paul Brallier and Jon Siu observe as Joyce Lem presents the committee's goals and initiatives.
Photo by Owen Kohashi
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One of the main takeaways was provided by Scott Douglas, who encouraged everyone to participate in any committee; you don’t need to be an expert in anything, but attending and learning is the key.
If you are at all interested in any of the following topics, please reach out to the committee chairs below and they will help you to get involved.
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Code Advisory Committee (NEW!!) – Scott Douglas, sdouglasscott@gmail.com
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Disaster Prep & Response Committee – John Riley, JRiley@quantumce.com
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Earthquake Engineering Committee – Scott Neuman, scotneu@gmail.com
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Education Committee – Theresa Daniel, TDaniel@integrusarch.com or Morgan Wiese, MWiese@integrusarch.com
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Existing Buildings Committee – Bryan Zagers, bryanz@cplinc.com
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Legislative Committee – Tim Nordstrom, tim.nordstrom@comcast.net
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Outreach Committee – Kyle Johnson, kyle.johnson@coffman.com
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Public Information Committee – Darrell Staaleson, dstaal@staaleng.com
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Scholarship Committee – Kevin Solberg, kevin.solberg@seattle.gov
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SE3 (Diversity and Inclusion) – Lisette Terry, DEI@seaw.org
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Sustainable Design Committee – Chris Jeseritz, cjeseritz@pcs-structural.com
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Wind Engineering Committee – Scott Douglas, sdouglasscott@gmail.com
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YMG (Younger Members Group) – Sebina Kalawadwala, sebina.kalawadwala@kpff.com
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SEFW 14th Annual Fall Forum was a Success! | |
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The Structural Engineers Foundation of Washington (SEFW) held its 14th Annual Fall Forum on Thursday, November 14th. Thank you to everyone that was able to join in person at Benaroya Hall, and to those that joined us virtually!
The Forum showcased the “Seattle Waterfront Transformation: A Collaborative Approach.” The presenters and panelists included Peter Steinbrueck, FAIA, Architect & Urban Strategist; Arash Naderpour, VDC Engineer, Turner Construction; Osama Quotah, AIA, Partner, LMN Architects; David Miller, FAIA, Founding Partner, Miller Hull; and Andrew Barash, P.E., Senior Project Manager, Jacobs. They each explored an extraordinary chapter in Seattle’s history: the transformation of the iconic waterfront. This once-industrial edge has evolved into a vibrant, accessible public space that reflects the city’s spirit of innovation and community.
The panelists dove into the collaborative process that brought this remarkable vision to life. They discussed the challenges overcome, the partnerships forged, and the inspiring results that have reconnected Seattle to its maritime heritage.
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The Fall Forum featured (from left to right) Melissa Verwest (SEFW Chair), Peter Steinbrueck, David Miller, Andrew Barash, Osama Quotah, and Arash Naderpour.
Photo courtesy Trevor Lunde.
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Over 200 people registered to attend the Forum this year. Hosting a virtual option allowed SEFW to open viewing to all over the United States, and abroad! If you missed the 2024 Fall Forum, watch it today on Vimeo: | |
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Peter Steinbrueck, FAIA, begins his remarks about the Seattle waterfront transformation at the SEFW Fall Forum in November.
Photo courtesy Trevor Lunde.
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SEAW Seattle Chapter members socialize at the Winter Social at Fremont Brewing in early December. Photo by Patrick Lindblom. | |
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The Seattle Chapter has gotten off to a good start this program year. We held a joint meeting in October with the Southwest chapter, where we learned about and installed concrete anchors thanks to sponsor DeWalt, and then recently we held a December Social at Fremont Brewing, where SEAW committee chairs presented about what their committees do and produce (see the meeting recap in this issue). The main takeaways for me, which I think are applicable to all SEAW members in the state and not just the Seattle Chapter, are that all committees would welcome new members to participate in their important work, and you don’t have to be an expert in the committee focus to join. It’s a great way to learn more and build expertise!
After the holidays, our January meeting will be the annual Student Showcase, put on by the YMG. The rest of the year will be filled out with monthly meetings including joint meetings with ACI and with ASCE, plus the June Social. If you have any ideas for presentation topics, please let Program Chair Patrick Lindblom know, as we are still working on finalizing a few meeting topics. Keep an eye out for upcoming meeting announcements, and I hope to see you at a meeting!
Lastly, we are starting to brainstorm ideas to celebrate the upcoming 75th Anniversary of SEAW next year. If you are interested in helping on the planning committee, please let me or someone else on the board know. There isn’t a minimum or maximum number of those 75 years that you’re required to have experienced! We welcome help from anyone – retirees, engineers just starting out, or anyone in between.
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The Spokane Chapter had a fantastic 2024. Our chapter meets monthly, typically over the lunch hour, with 25-30 members regularly attending. Year highlights included:
- Plant tours at Finnoe Design & Fabrication and Knife River Prestress.
- Our 2nd Chapter Project Showcase, where Coffman Engineers, GLR Engineers, Umlauf Engineers, and Integrus Architecture presented on their current projects.
- Our May Vendor social, sponsored by Simpson Strongtie, RedBuilt, Knife River, Masonry Industry Promotion Group, and Premier SIPs.
- Technical presentations from our gracious industry partners – WoodWorks, CRSI, and MKA.
- A special THANK YOU to our now retired chapter treasurer, Joe Scholze, for his service to our chapter for over 30 years.
We are so grateful for our chapter members and their participation in this organization!
Many exciting events are coming in 2025. Chapter meeting technical presentations will include geotechnical topics, CMU, and more. We plan to host another Vendor Social in May. And, finally, we are looking forward to hosting the 2025 SEA Northwest Conference this upcoming September in beautiful downtown Spokane.
We would love to see you in Spokane. If you would like to stay up to date on the local Spokane Chapter activities, email us at SEAWSpokane@gmail.com to get added to the list.
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Save the date:
- SEAW Southwest Chapter 18th Annual Architectural and Engineering Educational Trade Show
- Date: February 26th
- Time: 3pm-8pm
- Location: 5580 Pacific Highway E. Fife, WA 98424
Sponsor/Vendor Registration | Attendee Registration
Hello from the SEAW Southwest Chapter! It’s hard to believe we are closing in on the end of 2024! The board has been hard at work planning for a year of chapter events. This year we had a joint event with the SEAW Seattle chapter in October, hosted by DeWalt. We learned more about post-installed anchor installation and had a chance to install some anchors ourselves. Thank you to DeWalt and the SEAW Seattle Chapter for setting up a great event!
In November, we hosted the second year of remote watch parties for the SEFW Fall Forum. We had two watch parties this year – one at Saint Martins in Lacey and another at the UW Tacoma campus. We had a group of students attend each event and those events continue to be a great way to get engagement on local campuses.
We are currently on our winter break, but we will have more events coming up in January and February. First will be our joint event with CSI Mt. Rainier Chapter, touring the Center for Innovative Learning and Engagement on the Tacoma Community College campus. We will visit the site with Korsmo Construction, on January 9th. In February, we will be bringing back the Southwest Chapter Architectural and Engineering Trade Show. We will return to the Emerald Queen Casino conference center in Fife on February 26th, so mark your calendar with the save the date info in this newsletter, be sure to register, and we will see you there!
We have also set the date for our annual summer social with AIA SWW Chapter, which will be at the Rainier’s game on May 28th. Please join us for the ballgame and to reconnect with our peers in our local AIA chapter. We hope everyone has a great holiday season and we look forward to seeing our members at our events in 2025!
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SEAW Seattle and Southwest Chapter members engage with the DeWalt presenters at the joint meeting at Acme Construction Supply in October.
Photo by Evan Olszko.
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Reflections from the NCSEA Las Vegas Summit | |
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Patrick Lindblom
Seattle Chapter
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I recently was able to attend the 2024 NCSEA Summit held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Welcome Party was hosted at Topgolf and it was a great location to mingle and connect with colleagues from all over the country to catch up and socialize in a relaxed and casual environment.
The Opening Keynote plenum was presented by KP Reddy, who is an engineer by training but is now a venture capitalist in the A/E/C industry. He gave an inspiring presentation about artificial intelligence. One of his more eye-opening remarks, for me, was that the World Wide Web was great for communication, BIM was good for collaboration between disciplines, but this, AI, is going to change EVERYTHING. KP gave examples of how AI can be integrated into the entire planning, design, construction, and inspections workflow, but also on the day-to-day tasks that everyone can use to become more efficient, i.e. time-card entry.
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KP Reddy describes how AI will be integrated into our daily workflow in an NCSEA presentation.
Photo by Patrick Lindblom.
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A primary focus of the summit this year was on AI and how this will change and enhance our field. This is one of those exciting changes that will benefit those that embrace it. One of the breakout sessions gave an overview of the AI programs that are available and encouraged people to get used to interacting with it and learn how to use it, because the large language models that AI is trained on is already using your online information to learn from you.
Some additional meetings I attended included:
- The Seismic Code Advisory Committee meeting. They discussed ongoing work including upcoming NCSEA webinars and resource guides.
- A Code Crafters breakout session. The session focused on code change proposals that the NCSEA Code Advisory Committee (CAC) is working on to submit to the ICC for adoption into the 2027 I-code suite.
- A session outlining changes from the 2021 IBC to the 2024 IBC. Some of the most significant changes are in the ASCE 7-22 standard, in which virtually all the environmental loadings are changing. This includes flood, tornado, tsunami, and most significantly snow loads which will see large increases (over 50% for risk category 2 buildings) across most of the country.
This year marked NCSEA’s 30th anniversary as well as CSI’s 50th anniversary. This was honored by CSI hosting an anniversary celebration. This was another ideal event to socialize and meet other colleagues from around the country.
The NCSEA summit is a unique opportunity to converse with other engineers in our industry from across the country. It is impressive to see the presence that SEAW has at the conference, and I really appreciate the opportunity to attend.
The 2025 NCSEA summit will be in New York, and I highly encourage anyone that is able to attend to do so. More information here: NCSEA Summit
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A violinist performs during the CSI anniversary celebration at the NCSEA conference.
Photo by Patrick Lindblom.
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Paolo Bordeau
Seattle Chapter, YMG
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This past November, I had the opportunity to attend the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations (NCSEA) Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was my first time attending the NCSEA Summit, and I was eager to learn as much as I could from the numerous technical sessions and connect with fellow structural engineers across the country. Attending this conference, especially as a young member, was an eye-opening and thought-provoking experience. Within four days, I felt honored to be a part of this amazing community that continues to innovate and shape the future of this industry.
The Summit opened with a keynote on the developing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the structural engineering world, setting the tone for the following days. Several presentations and discussions were held throughout the conference on how this emerging technology will impact our industry. Various experts shared the trends and potential impacts of AI, ways to integrate AI in our work, and the strategies and tools that are available today and being developed. One of the sessions that resonated with me was one titled “Embracing AI.” I believe this title alone summarizes the goal of these sessions: to encourage the structural engineers of today to embrace the future in artificial intelligence. As a young member, this reinforced the importance of staying involved in the ongoing discussions and adoption of AI.
A diverse set of technical sessions were offered at this year’s summit. Many of the sessions I attended were topics that I had little exposure to, such as real examples of claims against a structural engineer and scope of work disputes within design teams. NCSEA also held a very interesting keynote on the topic of taking more smart risks in the workplace, such as speaking up, having tough conversations, and sharing ideas. The keynote encouraged more risk-taking and embracing the awkwardness and discomfort to improve the social muscles needed to initiate these topics. My main takeaway from this keynote is that “the fastest path to major improvement comes from strengthening what’s weak, rather than what’s strong.”
The major highlight for me at the Summit is the growing networking and involvement of young members at this conference. Many sessions were either led by or included early professionals that participated in important industry discussions such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices, shaping future code updates, and strategies on improving young member engagement nationwide. I had the opportunity to connect with young member group pioneers across the country and was involved in discussions on how to further engage and support early professionals using the tools, knowledge, and connections available to our respective young member groups. I am looking forward to using the knowledge I gained and connections I made at the NCSEA Summit to continue building on the amazing work that we do. Thank you to SEAW for supporting me and making this experience possible.
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Paolo (center) meets several new colleagues at the NCSEA Summit in Las Vegas in November.
Photo courtesy Paolo Bordeau.
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Register Today and Submit Abstracts for the 2025 SEA NW Conference | | |
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Brian Parsons
Planning Committee Chair
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The 2025 SEA Northwest Conference Planning Committee is excited to announce that registration for the 2025 Conference in Spokane is open! Visit the website and register now to receive a 25% early bird discount on most registration types! Hurry, early bird pricing is for a limited time only. | |
In addition to registration, the planning committee is also excited to announce our Request for Abstracts. Please submit information if you are interested in being a speaker. And please forward to anyone you think might be interested. All speakers receive free full conference registration and a $500 travel/expense allowance. | |
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December 20, 2024, 12:00 - 1:00 PM
Wind Engineering Committee Meeting (@Via ZOOM)
January 9, 2025, TBD
SEAW SW/CSI Mt. Rainier Joint Meeting (@Center for Innovative Learning & Engagement at Tacoma Community College)
January 29, 2025, 5:30 PM
SEAW Seattle Student Showcase (@Father LeRoux, S.J. Conference Center, Seattle University)
February 26, 2025, 3:00 - 8:00 PM
SEAW SW Architectural & Engineering Trade Show (@Emerald Queen Casino, Fife)
May 28, 2025, TBD
SEAW SW Summer Social at the Rainiers (@Cheney Stadium, Tacoma)
September 15-19, 2025
19WCSI (@University of California Berkeley)
September 25-26, 2025
SEA Northwest Conference / SEAW 75th Anniversary Celebration (@DoubeTree by Hilton, Spokane)
Please see the SEAW website for other event dates and information: https://www.seaw.org/calendar
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Mayuresh Belose
Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Associate- Seattle Chapter
Jack Wilson
Integrus Architecture
Student- Spokane Chapter
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Are you currently seeking employment as a structural engineer, senior manager, or a senior engineer technician? Check out our job board for current employment opportunities. | |
Design Engineer
PCS Structural Solutions
Location: Seattle/Tacoma, WA
PCS Structural Solutions is looking to welcome an entry level Design Engineer to our Seattle and Tacoma teams!
We’re looking for mission-driven individuals to join our collaborative and innovative team! At our firm, you’ll have the chance to contribute to exciting projects that are shaping communities across the Pacific Northwest and nationwide.
As a single-focus structural engineering firm, we’ve built a strong reputation in healthcare, education, commercial, civic, and residential markets. We take pride in fostering a fun, supportive culture that values mentorship, continuous learning, and team-building activities, whether it’s office barbecues, golf tournaments, or family-friendly events.
With offices in Tacoma, Seattle, and Portland, we offer a flexible work environment, though this is not a remote role.
Ready to make a difference? Join our team!
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Applying or Renewing your Membership in SEAW | |
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SEAW is organized into the membership categories and their corresponding dues structures
listed below. Select the membership category that best fits your status.
Your contact information is shared with our foundation, SEFW.
In order to “opt-out” please contact the association office. Click here for our privacy policy.
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Please consider making a line-item donation to SEFW as part of your dues renewal. Special designation can be placed on the donation, so it can be applied to scholarships, disaster preparedness or research opportunities. SEFW fulfills its mission with the assistance of donations from individuals and corporations. More information on SEFW and its mission to promote structural engineering can be found at www.sefw.org. Thank you for your support! | | | | |
