In a long-awaited, historic step toward “real" not cookbook wind engineering, the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers recently issued a recommended alternative to the building code’s prescriptive procedures for the wind design of buildings. Properly implemented, the Prestandard for Performance-Based Wind Design, available free of charge for all structural engineers to use, results in buildings capable of achieving wind performance objectives specified in the ASCE 7 design load standard, and in many cases, superior performance, according to SEI.

As the height of a building increases, the most dominant wind forces on a building change from those on the roof to those on the walls of the building. This concept has been the basis of the dual set of provisions in the ASCE 7 Standard and building codes since the original wind tunnel studies were completed in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

PCS Structural Solutions, a single-discipline structural engineering firm based in Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland, has formed an internal team of engineers focused on projects with specialized structural engineering needs. These projects include heavy and light industrial facilities, equipment support in new and existing structures, and non-building structures such as water tanks, detention vaults, and crane foundations.