Building Information Modeling (BIM) uses intelligent 3D models to coordinate design, construction, and project information. In the Architecture Engineering Construction (AEC) industry, BIM improves collaboration, reduces conflicts, and helps teams deliver accurate,...
Valerie Hendel | While the shortest path between two points is often a straight one, it isn’t always the case, nor is it even the most interesting. Jeff Klein’s trajectory to his structural engineering career used … other geometries. More of a curve and not so much...
PCS has been proud to support the rise of mass timber in building design and construction, including schools like Washington School for the Deaf which is featured in this video by the Washington Mass Timber Accelerator! This material has so many incredible benefits, from sustainability to supporting the well-being of the people who use these spaces every day.
PCS is excited to announce the promotions of four very talented structural engineers: McKell Bowen to associate principal, Jared Dragovich to senior associate, Rebecca Rumann to associate, and Jaycob Greissl to project manager. Bowen has 10 years’ experience and...
PCS Structural Solutions has entered its fifth generation of leadership with the promotion of Todd Parke to chief executive officer and Alex Legé to president. The 60-year structural engineering firm based in Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland has been a Northwest...
High-rise healthcare towers like Providence/Swedish's $1.3B Hughes Tower, under construction, and Harborview Medical Center's planned inpatient tower, require complex coordination and collaboration under tight site constraints. By Todd Parke PCS Structural...
Over the course of 40 years, Jack Pinkard’s work has impacted the transformation of infrastructure across the Pacific Northwest, having engineered more than 10,000 projects that helped shape the region’s growth and resilience. He started his career at Chalker...
Project success is no accident. It requires rigorous and continuous management and hard work from all team members and stakeholders. Large, multi-year projects take these requirements to another level, demanding multi-layered communication, coordination, record-keeping, and oversight from each discipline individually and from overall project leaders. Healthcare projects add on the input of medical planning teams and user groups, whose needs and requirements may evolve through the project’s long timeline.
Hospitals and outpatient centers are among the most intricate building types in the AEC world. Each square foot must reliably integrate clinical workflows, stringent building codes, vibration limits for sensitive equipment, and 24/7 operational resilience. Add to that the need for designs that support future adaptability, construction in occupied facilities that must be carefully phased around active patient care, and the reality that every day of project delay can affect lives—not just budgets—and the stakes become clear.
In 1981, the coffee pot at 950 Fawcett Avenue was likely to overcook, leaving a ring of coffee sediment baked to the bottom. Fifteen structural engineers at the firm of Chalker Engineers were busy making their mark in Tacoma. The engineers hunched over worktables pencil sketching structural designs onto large mylar sheets, careful to brush off pencil findings with horsehair brushes. Business was good. There were five phone lines, a full rolodex, and plenty of message pads.
