June 23, 2026

Newsletter

In This Issue

Updates:

Welcome New Board

Volunteering:

7/15 Engineering Day

Weaver Building

Updates

Welcome 2026-2027 Board Members

SEA-MW would like to welcome Selam Gebru of SOM, Ben Gunden of Ehlert Bryan, Gillian Love of SGH, Rupa Patel of Thornton Tomasetti, and Ervin Rogers of Delon Hampton & Associates to its board. 

We would also like to thank departing directors Marcia Camarda, Jennifer Greenawalt, Scott Cirmo, Bill McLain for their dedication and service to the organization, as well as our departing chairperson, Nate Salnick for all of his contributions leading SEA-MW last year.

The board will be meeting this summer to plan programs for the coming year.  If you have any ideas for topics or activities, please share them with board@seamw.org.

Volunteering

July 15 | 10 a.m. | Volunteering

Engineering Day at District Architect Center's Summer Camp 

On July 15th, SEA-MW is excited to host "Engineering Day" at a summer camp held at The District Architect Center, designed for kids ages 8-10. The event will run from 10am to 3pm, and we're looking for volunteers to help these young students explore the world of structural engineering. Volunteers are welcome to join for either the morning shift (10am–12pm) or the afternoon shift (1pm–3pm), depending on their availability. Activities may include building spaghetti and marshmallow towers to test on a shake table or using fans to blow over a tower of cups to simulate wind loads.

Project Spotlight

This feature highlights SEA-MW's 2026 Excellence in Structural Engineering Award winners and finalists.

Awardee: Specialized Structural Elements

Robert C. Weaver Federal Building

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates

The Robert C. Weaver Federal Building is a ten-story, curvilinear ‘X’-shaped building. The exterior facades are primarily clad with architectural precast concrete at the long facades and black French Creek “Cherry Hill” granite panels at each “corner” facade. The building was designed in the Brutalist style by noted architect Marcel Breuer and constructed between 1965 and 1968. Due to the building’s masterful aesthetic use of precast concrete and granite panels, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. WJE and The Tradesman Group were retained by The General Services Administration to perform Design-Build services to remove and reinstall the historic granite panels at three of the corner facades after significant panel displacement was observed by WJE during a survey in 2012. The goal was to reuse 100 percent of the existing stone panels, utilizing newly designed anchorage that was completely concealed to ensure no aesthetic changes in the appearance of the historic facade. Unforeseen conditions required customized anchorage design and individual panel load testing for a majority of the approximately 1,725 reinstalled panels.

View all award winning projects

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