Earthquake / Green / Seismic
Degenkolb Green Projects Take Home Two Engineering Excellence Awards from SEAONC
San Francisco, CA (April 23, 2008) - The Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (SEAONC) announced the winners of the SEAONC 2008 Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards competition. This year SEAONC added a sustainability category, and two Degenkolb projects received an award of Excellence.
Providence Newberg Hospital, the nation’s first LEED Gold hospital, is honored in the Large Sustainability Category. Degenkolb was charged with developing a structural system that would help meet LEED certification criteria, maintain a better than life-safe seismic performance in the hospital, minimize vibration sensitivity, and be flexible enough to change programming in the future should the need arise. The seismic resilience will ensure that the community receives critical care in the time of a crisis, and also extends the life of the building after a natural disaster—reducing the resource demands on the environment and financial demands on the area after a major earthquake. It is expected that the sustainable design will result in 26% reduction in energy costs over a comparably sized conventional structure.
Project FROG, a modular classroom prototype, is honored in the Small Sustainability Category. Units are grounded in green building technology and are extremely efficient in how they are manufactured and how they operate, minimizing energy use and resources needed. These units are quick to deploy and can be easily assembled with a small crew and simple installation equipment.
Awards will be presented on the evening of Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at the City Club in San Francisco. Founded in 1930, SEAONC is committed to advancing the art, science and practice of structural engineering.
Project Frog Images: Project Frog, Inc.
Providence Newberg Images: David Davidson Photography