Principal Thoughts

Severud Associates Promotions

The experienced and expert engineering staff at Severud Associates is our most important asset. Therefore, we are proud to announce that Gerry Lourentzatos, Rebecca Milano, and Daniel M. Presburger have been named Associate. All three have demonstrated 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 Matthew Peitz and Daniel Surrett have been named Associate Principal. Both have demonstrated a deep commitment to their profession and the firm.

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Sustainable Concrete

More than a fifth of the way into the 21st century, it is hard to imagine a time when smart phones were not ubiquitous.  But in the late 1990s, these now-indispensable devices and their precursors, personal digital assistants, were relatively rare, in use mainly by early adopters and other technophiles.  For professionals in the building industry, it might also be difficult to recall that sustainable design and construction was once a new concept.  In 1998, the U.S. Green Building Council began evaluating 19 pilot projects in their nascent Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.  And yet today, LEED has reached its fourth iteration, with more than 100,000 certified buildings.  Severud Associates has contributed to the trend towards green building practices with almost 25 years of developing sustainable concrete design.

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A History of Awards

The film awards season comes to a close this weekend with the airing of the 94th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday. Movie stars, directors, and producers will arrive by limo at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California, where they will walk the red carpet and proceed inside and wait, with bated breath, to learn who will be named best actor and actress and which film will be crowned as the year’s best.

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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:  John Lu and Kyle MacDonald have advanced to the level of Associate and William Cheng, Timothy Culligan, Giuseppe Gennarini, and Gerry Lourentzatos have progressed to the position of Senior Engineer.  These engineers have demonstrated a deep commitment to their profession and the firm.

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Biltmore Theatre Renovation

Eighteen months after going dark at the start of the pandemic, Broadway theaters re-opened this fall to the great excitement of theater buffs, actors, and producers alike. Among the venues that returned is the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, located on West 47th Street in the heart of the theater district. Originally known as the Biltmore Theatre, the building was constructed in 1925 and hosted premieres of well-known productions such as Barefoot in the Park and Hair. The Biltmore had a previous re-opening in 2003—18 years ago this month—with a reconfigured and completely restored auditorium. Severud Associates—who has had its own re-opening of sorts with the return to full-time operations in its Seventh Avenue office—provided the structural design.
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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:  Donghao Liu has been elevated to Senior Associate; Alex Azero, Stacey Hursen, Dan Ki, Kevin Norton, and Eric Samaniego have advanced to the level of Associate; and Christian Consalvo, Rebecca Milano, and Dan Presburger have progressed to the position of Senior Engineer.  These engineers have demonstrated a deep commitment to their profession and the firm.

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National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center – Arecibo Observatory

Supermassive black hole binaries. Ultra-faint radio stars. Binary Pulsar J1906+0746. Quasar 3C273. These may sound like fantastical locales from science fiction movies. In fact, they are a few of the actual galactic bodies discovered at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center in Puerto Rico, more commonly known as the Arecibo Observatory. The facility opened in 1963 and by 1965 astronomers there had determined that Mercury, a planet only readily observable during daylight hours, rotated once per 59 days, not 88 days as was believed for almost a century. Conceptual design of the radio telescope started in 1958 and in January of 1960—61 years ago this month—Severud Associates was chosen to provide structural engineering services for the project.
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One Vanderbilt

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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