A Neglected Bridge in Paris

We don't think of Paris as a place where one of the most beautiful bridges could be neglected. Providence maybe, not Paris, after all we are in the "where charm meets neglect" state and proud of it (see Milkcan Industries for terrific T shirt). It is a bridge I have been meaning to see, so I dragged my family from the charm of central Paris to the neglected east side - part of the Seine that doesn't get visited (tour boats turn around several miles prior to this bridge - so you need a couple subway rides and a long walk in the rain).

It is always raining at this bridge too.

This 8" x 36" Steel Bar splice (each side) with 386 weld passes is a thing of beauty - it is the catenary that carries the entire span… ignore the graffiti and mold.

Yes you have to walk up and down, nothing is flat, but when you find out is the shape of a moment diagram, who wouldn't want to! 

And you get to choose too!   Positive or negative!

At the moment diagram inflection point, remember, do not bother the homeless man in this tent! He is not nice!  And do not move the swivel chair, it is his!!!

Just get to other side as quick as you can, carry pepper spray, than sit back and then admire this

It is really a special bridge, an engineering marvel, a lightweight/efficient and stunning structural solution (a long-span lenticular - mirrored catenaries -  on rotational supports).  Still ranks in my top ten pedestrian bridges in the world.  When I think of the other 9 I will let you know.

 Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir – Mitterrand Library to Bercy https://feichtingerarchitects.com/les-projets/045_simone-de-beauvoir/

Our Giving Program

Structures Workshop would like to help projects engaged in art, construction, architecture, science, preservation, conservation and of coarse engineering!

We also support all organizations, especially locally in RI, CT, NY and MA - that support our communities! Our giving program supports individuals, organizations, and non-profit institutions in need.  We award $500 to $5,000 in grants, through the owner’s Vanguard Charitable DAF (it used to be directly from SW but for ease of paperwork it is now through this donor advised fund). Erik gives a minimum of 10% of all his income this way (ie. 10% of SW profit goes to charity and more). He joined the “Giving What We Can pledge through the Center for Effective Altruism.

If you have a project that needs some funding, please send us info! Also we can provide free structural engineering consultation.

Once awarded, we will have no stake in your project and no marketing is expected or desired.  The award will be your money for your project.  We are simply trying to help with a donation and/or our expertise.  

30: Get a Drawing Pad with Digital Pen For Computer

I haven’t added to my Manifesto for Growth in 7 years, but I think this #30 “Get a Drawing Pad with Digital Pen For Computer” is a worthy add.

We bought Wacom One pads for all of us engineers, and we place them in front of our key boards for easy access to markup an email/PDF/word doc etc just like sketching on a pad.

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We have been using for 6 months now and here are sketches I did last week

In #27 of this manifesto “sketch poorly and sketch often” also applies to computer pads…

Drawing quick sketches is essential to being able to make informed engineering decisions. Drawings help us determine which elements are relevant and which may be safely ignored. These daily hand sketches are needed to help us make subtle discriminations about proportion, member orientation, constructibility, connectivity, etc. So we need to sketch and sketch often, but do we need to sketch well? No. Sketches should only meet one criteria - they need to be useful. They need to communicate a design intent and to help with decision making about the design. Feel free to sketch well as a hobby - by all means - add water color even, but for daily engineering, sketch poorly and sketch often.

In fact, you can even sketch without any consideration of craft and it will still be useful.

Shout Out to Our Steel Fabricators in New England

We are very proud to design steel connections (on too numerous of projects to name) and we sometimes forget to thank the best clients we can have! All those amazing steel fabricators and erectors out there.. Thank you!!!

We don’t just design standard stuff but love the complex connections, here are just a few connection we designed on a recent job… lots of love goes into these details and it is the fabricators/erectors that do the hard part of building them all.

And yes this is just a tiny sample of one single project (14 out of 18,143 connections we helped design on that one single project).

First Hemp Lime House in the US

The team (Estes Twombly + Titrington Architects) used a hemp lime system developed in France for thermal mass. Hempcrete or hemplime is biocomposite mixture of hemp hurds (shives, lime, sand) and according to the owner…

“this is the first cedar shingled hemplime house on the planet with some other notable innovations including a convertible closed-to-open deep foundation; a hybrid air-based / hydronic heating and cooling system; a geothermal system; a photovoltaic power generation system; and locally sourced materials with lower embodied carbon just to name a few.”

And there is no sheathing! No plywood so we developed wood braced frames. We also designed the foundation for wave loads (Cape Cod oceanfront) in the next 100 years with CMU walls that can be removed prior to a storm (or breakaway freely during the storm without damaging the house) which makes it capable of converting from a closed foundation into an open one, predicting a future FEMA code 50+ years from now.

This innovative project adds to our growing list including …

  • 2020 We designed this first hemp lime house in MA with the first convertible foundation on the planet

  • 2017 We designed the 4th Certified Living Building building in MA (the most rigorous building standard in the world, makes this the 23rd certified Living Building in the world)

  • 2015 We designed the first Passive House in RI

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Our FEM Models vs Reality

David Krakauer of the Santa Fe Institute describes the m^cubed phenomenon or m^cubed mayham as confusions that arise in people minds between mathematics, mathematical models, and metaphors.  I would simplify this and call it m^squared and lump mathematics and mathematical models together as models.  In the past, I have described the FEM models we use in engineering practice differ from the real world and highlight how our models should never be assumed to mimic reality, but are simply tools for us to exercise our engineering (or moral) judgement (in my case, to design safe structures).  We should never mix up the model for what is actually happening in the real world.   This is analogous to Krakaur’s models and metaphors. 

Krakauer says in Harris’s book Making Sense

“you can talk about spring and levers and these are physical artifacts…and then there are mathematical models of spring and levers” and “there is this tendency to be epistemologically narcissistic.  We tend to take whatever current model we’re using and project that onto the natural world as the best-fitting template for how the natural world operates…for many reasons the model is imperfect, computers are not robust”.  

It is not that computers are not robust, they can be robust, it is that they don’t need to be – we humans need to be robust. We need to better understand computer models (and output) and not be subjects to its authority.   This is a actually a question of dominion – we need never forget that we rule over it. Also, to Krakaur’s point, we need recognize when we are being epistemologically narcissistic - it happens all the time and it is really lazy thinking.  This will make us better engineers.  We need to constantly question our models. Again models serve us, not the other way around.

New Providence Library Ready to Open!

Projo Article on our new library posted today! We designed new hung floors within, ultra thin, and long span stairs through very large new floor openings (we removed) in the existing art deco 1950s addition downtown (pan joists with concrete encased steel). Arch: DesignLab, Builder: Bond, Steel Fab/Erector: Capco. Picture from Projo links to article.

The Trees (a bad poem by Erik)

The trees do not speak to us, never did.
If they could they would likely scream.
Fortunately, their sounds are simply produced by interactions with wind
Which we strangely call silence.

They are not our trees, never were, they are the trees.
They lived here well before we evolved to humans.
They live longer than us, some in fact are over 4000 years old.
Apparently we cut down the oldest one, but not the 2nd oldest
Could the second oldest become older?

They were once all wild and now mostly farmed.
Planting one monolithic commercial forest never replaces a wild one.
Weyerhaeuser is full of shit.
Conservation is not the same as preservation, they all know this.
These concepts are as distinct as Pinchot and Muir themselves.
Trees should be preserved within their diverse forests, not solely conserved for humans.

Trees are not individuals, they are communities.
There is no tree, there are trees (forests).
They live and interact with the entire biotic communities around them.
Theirs roots extend into their neighbors roots, they become intertwined communities
We need to learn from them.

Stainless Steel Pipes and Fabric on “Pressure Springs”

We designed the cantilevered steel support structure for a future tensile fabric membrane at the Garrahy Parking Garage in Providence. Capco Erection is currently installing the stainless steel pipes for a future tensile fabric covering.

Glass Elevator Wins Silver Prism Award

We were structural engineers for the glass elevator and worked for Oasis to design this award winning elevator. Our team won the Silver Prism Award last week. Project located in Boston at Union Wharf and check out Oasis for more info…https://oasisspecialtyglass.com/oasis-glass-elevator_wins_2019_prism-award/

Here is our Revit model with some images…

We designed the glass, glass connections, steel and steel connections as well as wood and wood connections. Fun and challenging project!

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