ROSENWASSER / GROSSMAN CONSULTING ENGINEERS
RGCE HIGH-RISE CONCRETE ENGINEERING
LET ME ASK YOU A DOPEY QUESTION
WE EXPECT OUR ENGINEERS TO ASK QUESTIONS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE STRUCTURE.
"What is the maximum aspect ratio for your ducts? When do suds zones come into play? What's your maximum travel distance from door to stair? What's the minimum closet width you're trying to maintain in a secondary bedroom?
Structural engineers are responsible for the structure. That doesn't mean they should only understand the structure.
A building is an interconnected collection of architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and façade systems. Decisions made by one discipline frequently affect another in ways that aren't immediately obvious.
At RGCE, we encourage our engineers to be curious about all of it.
Why is that there? What does it do? Where does it go? What happens if we move it?
The answer may have absolutely nothing to do with structural engineering. That's okay. The objective isn't to practice someone else's profession. It's to understand the building we're helping design.
DON'T JUST FIND THE CONFLICT. UNDERSTAND IT.
It's easy to identify something on another consultant's drawings that conflicts with the structure. It's more useful to understand why it's there.
Once we understand what another discipline is trying to accomplish, the conversation changes. Instead of simply saying, “you can't put that there,” we can participate in finding another way to accomplish the same objective.
Sometimes the structure moves. Sometimes another system moves. Sometimes neither has to move because because asking the right question reveals a better solution.
Good coordination starts with curiosity.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO ASK THE QUESTION.
Engineers are trained to solve problems and provide answers. That can sometimes make people reluctant to ask a question outside their expertise—particularly when they think everyone else in the room already knows the answer.
We encourage the opposite.
If one of our engineers doesn't understand something about the building, we want them to ask. The answer becomes another small piece of institutional knowledge that can be carried into the next design meeting, the next project and eventually the next generation of RGCE engineers.
Sometimes the question leads nowhere. Sometimes everyone learns something.
And every once in a while, the dopey question turns out to be the most important question in the room.
Credit to Lou Katsos for teaching a young engineer the importance of asking a dopey question.