Announcements

Congratulations to the acclaimed interior designer, Ken Fulk, on his  intriguing profile   in the SF Business Times. His portfolio includes imaginative and unique designs for countless high profile clients.  We are excited to be a part of one of Mr. Fulk’s current projects, The Battery, a private club and hotel in a historic masonry building. 

Our colleague John Hare, of  Holmes Group, spoke in Seattle at the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute annual meeting, giving insight into the recovery of Christchurch and the preparedness of other cities. More can be read at the Seattle Times.

Adobe’s Corporate Campus in Lehi, Utah has opened. Following a  celebration by Adobe and its staff, the company behind popular software products such as Photoshop and Illustrator, moved in and began work. Holmes Culley in association with Dunn Associates completed the structural work for phase I of this impressive, expansive campus. 

Holmes Culley's seismic retrofit of the historic 140 New Montgomery builidng is featured in John King's San Francisco Chronicle  article  "Phone company site rings in new era".  Originally built as the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Building in 1925, this historic  landmark is being improved to meet modern siesmic safety and become office space for new tech tenants. 

AIA San Francisco announces the 2012 Design Awards. Congratulations to all of the design teams. Holmes Culley and Holmes Fire are proud to have two projects recognized: House of Air and Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive.

Rebuilding The Garden City, Christchurch, New Zealand: A discussion of the rebuilding of Christchurch after the recent devastating earthquake. Speaker John Hare, PE, has been working as the Principal Engineering Adviser to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA). His discussion will be two parts: the reasons for the large amount of demolition and the rebuilding of the city with its implication on policy. @ San Francisco AIA, March 8, 2012 noon-1pm

Structural Engineer, Bill Tremayne, of Holmes Culley tied for first place at the 2010 PEER/NEES Concrete Column Blind Prediction Contest. More than 50 teams registered for the contest and 41 teams submitted complete entries. Bill modeled the column using 3D beam-column elements with concentrated plastic hinges that exhibit degrading strength and stiffness.

New Projects

Intuit Corporate Campus in Mountain View is currently in-design for the financial software developer of TurboTax and QuickBooks. The project consists of two new office buildings and two new parking facilities amounting to 740,000 SF. The new four story buildings are designed to meet LEED Platinum Certification and collectively will house 1,800 employees in a collaborative, open setting. Furthermore, the buildings are classed as a structural Occupancy Category III, which provides increased seismic performance compared with a standard structure.

The County of Marin Emergency Operations Facility has entered plan check for phase I of the project. This phase includes a  full seismic retrofit to the entire building, exceeding essential services facility design requirements and instead will still be operational after a 1 in 475 year seismic event. Phase II of the EOF will consist of a renovation of the existing commercial office building for use as the Marin County Sheriff’s Department, 911/Communication Center, and Office of Emergency Services. 

Stanford University, School of Medicine has entered the permitting phase for 780 Welch Road, a three-story building that will provide future space for clinical trial leaders, researchers, coordinators, and practitioners. The space is designed to maximize natural light, allowing the occupants a pleasing light filled space. The facility follows Stanford’s own seismic engineering guidelines as a non-critical Class 3 building for medical tenants. The structure of the facility is reinforced concrete construction, with post tensioned flat slab and concrete shear core. 

Salt Lake City Public Safety Building is under construction. Holmes Culley teamed with Dunn Associates for this exciting net zero energy building which is designed to withstand the Maximum Credible Earthquake over a 2,500 year period.

Adobe Corporate Campus has opened in Lehi. Holmes Culley and Dunn Associates were selected as the structural engineering team for the new Adobe Corporate Campus in Lehi, UT. The collaborative design teams in the Bay Area and Utah provided the building's documentation using a single 3-D model. Phase I of the campus includes a four-story office building and gymnasium/amenity building. At the heart of the campus will be a three-story atrium space, which will serve as a focal point for the site.

717 Battery (Musto Plaza) - The 717 Battery project involves the full seismic retrofit of an existing three story, historic unreinforced masonry building (UMB) located in the Jackson Square district of San Francisco, CA. Future phases of the project will involve lowering the existing basement to create functional space, construction of a new open air plaza with basement in a currently underutilized area adjacent to the existing building, and construction of a fourth floor penthouse.