A Place of Sense

I hope everyone had a good holiday season. I spent the past few weeks with family and friends, relaxing and recharging my batteries. It was also great to be back in a warmer climate watching a blizzard move through the US.

My mom and stepfather have successfully set up a vineyard winery, with products now available locally in central Texas. So congratulations to them for their hard work! We celebrated the holidays with their organically farmed, sustainably managed, zero-mile wine.

New Year’s Day is also a chance to reflect on the past and contemplate the future. 2009 was a redeeming year for APOS, over 100 posts published and I was very proud of a few. Here’s a list of my favorites from 2009:

1. Placemaking in Irvington
2. Greenwashing the Construction Industry
3. Iconic Structures (series)
4. Role of Structural Engineers in Sustainable Design
5. Gender Issues in Engineering
6. Icehouse Featured in Magazine
7. Successful Renovation of Local Schoolhouse
8. How Large is Downtown Indy?
9. All Infrastructure Users are Created Equal
10. Metastable Equilibrium

If I missed anyone else’s favorite, they are all listed in the Archives!

Looking to the future, I anticipate another year full of personal and professional growth. I have found the website to be a great hobby. I love bringing together my interests in the community with my interests in engineering. Blogging = awesomeness defined. I’m even going to kick it up a notch, as my wife bought me a new camera. 10MP of photographic power in a pocket-friendly plastic form.

If anyone wants to know why I have been writing less the past month, it is because the economy has begun recovery in my area and work is coming in strong and steady. I also participated in the Greening of the IMU project (writeup to come soon) and I have been involved with the latest efforts from the ASCE/EWRI Rain Garden project (writeup also to come soon).

IMU is pursuing LEED EB (image courtesy of Indiana Univ.)

Green Infrastructure for everyone!

I will be away from the computer most of the holidays, so wanted to wish everyone a good break and I will be writing again in about two weeks.

In the meantime, I will leave everyone with some fun websites to visit:
(Gen)erative scapes
Prepare to have your mind blown

Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air
Absolutely the best white paper/book/opinion ever produced on cutting through to the essential quandaries of providing sustainable energy for an entire country. If you do anything related to sustainability this winter, please start by reading this in its entirety. (Download full PDF here)

Building Green, Being Green
A structural engineer describing sustainable design from her own experiences

Bad British Architecture
Name says it all

Design Intelligence
Blog from the DI publishers

Reclaimagination
An inactive blog, but one from a civil engineer with great photos of a senior design project at CMU (created about 5 years after my own class’ project at CMU, a writeup on this topic also coming soon)

Green Building Law Blog
“Pre-Consumer, Non-Recycled Content Regarding Green Building and the Law” – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The LEED certification process has torn down the walls that separate professionals and it has already changed the world. This blog about green building from a lawyer’s perspective is evidence of the LEED legacy that will be remembered for many years to come.

It’s a tough economy out there. Graduate engineers are in a better position than most people when looking for a job, but getting that first job is a hard task for anyone right now. But, even with all of the problems facing young engineers right now, they still have some options if they can’t find their ideal position.

There are a few employers of graduate engineers that are always hiring, including:

• Work for a related industry or employer
• Graduate School
• Military Service
• Development and charitable organizations
• Go live at home and help the family

Other Work
The first option makes an explicit assumption that not everyone will get their #1 choice for a job. This is not really a problem, though. There are still plenty of jobs available in the market, but some graduates will have to expand their concept of engineering.

Many firms that do not receive national press, have poor presence on the internet, and do not recruit at schools actually do very important engineering work. They are more difficult to find, but they can provide a new graduate with their important first job.

Another strategy is to apply for jobs in a related industry or employer. There are many companies that make products, components, or sell services directly to engineering firms. These companies prefer hiring engineers because they understand clients better. Just remember, becoming an engineer is a long process and engineering experience can come in many different forms in the first few years of employment.

Graduate School
Personally, I graduated during a recessionary period after the Dot.Com market fiasco. This was also a time when fewer entry positions were open. I was totally unprepared for this event and didn’t even know what part of the country I wanted to live in after graduation, and I certainly didn’t know where to apply for jobs.

Eventually I decided that graduate school was a good option for me. This decision must me made early in the final year of school, or else it is unlikely that all of the paperwork and testing can be completed on time. Graduate fellowship positions are extremely competitive when the job market is at a low, but sometimes it is worth the additional debt to continue classes anyways. The tuition costs can be paid off later with a stronger resume and a better job.

Military Service
Military service is also an option. I know several friends and classmates who chose to join the military after graduation instead of looking for a job. It’s a hard decision for anyone to make because of the risks and consequences, but engineers can be a valuable asset in the military.

Experience in the military is a great way for graduate engineers to differentiate themselves when applying for a job. Here in the US, most employers are cognizant that honorably discharged soldiers make some of the best employees and get great training from Uncle Sam. On the other hand, military service is incredibly hard even during times of peace, so the decision should not be made lightly.

Development Organizations
Another option beyond military service is finding a position with peacemaking and development organizations. The Peace Corp, Americorp, Teach America, and similar programs can provide a great way to give back to the global community with engineering skills. These programs also carry risk and consequences, so they must be carefully considered before any decision is made.

Moving Back Home
One final option for many graduates is to return home and live with their family. This is a very common action in times of economic hardship. Single family homes typically have an elastic capacity to absorb grown children, pets, married couples and their children. All of the empty apartments, rental houses, and foreclosed homes are good evidence of this happening. The last time this happened on such a large scale was the Great Depression, which forced many families back together.

Moving back home was also part of my strategy for graduate school. I was fortunate enough to grow up down the road from a state engineering school that accepted me for grad school. Not everyone will fit into that circumstance, but many people have families, relatives, or close family friends near engineering colleges.

Most people are often more than willing to have a long-term guest in their house to help out friends and family. The lower costs can make a big difference, as my stipend would have put me well below the poverty line but my free rent gave me the opportunity to eat things other than Ramen.

The Big Picture
Whatever choices graduate engineers make, there are a few key points to remember. The first is that most graduates should find jobs that will support their application to become a Professional Engineer (PE). This means that the job should be managed by an already licensed PE or should be academic in nature. The NCEES licensure page has additional information. Graduate engineers should *never* assume that their job is applicable unless specifically noted.

Also, the first few years after graduation are a time of continuing education. Indeed, this is true for the entire career of most engineers. Engineers must make every attempt to continue learning, studying, and asking questions. As noted in the beginning, not every engineer will find their #1 job waiting for them upon graduation. This is not the time to despair and abandon one’s goals. Instead, work hard to develop into the type of engineer that will qualify for one’s ideal job.

Whatever the future may bring, graduate engineers must take the initiative to learn from coworkers, stay active in the community, join professional groups, read books, play softball and sports whenever possible, and maybe even tackle some collaborative design challenges with other engineers and architects.

As an engineer, I have many designs and activities always calling for my attention. It’s kind of like children, except I am allowed to love some more than others.

I am facing a project due at the end of the week (and probably extend for another week) so I won’t be posting much. In the meantime, please enjoy the beautiful autumn weather and know there will be some fun and interesting posts at the beginning of November.

Also, go check out my new archive of posts.

A great website “Notes on Becoming A Famous Architect” has brought us a fun, historic entry from the Princeton School of Architecture.

Notes on Becoming a Famous Architect

I support health care reform. Not only because I have seen the criminal, demoralizing behavior of the health care insurance industry when I almost cut my arm off (surgery was classified as “elective” so they could deny my claim), but I have also noticed how it forces some employees to remain in their jobs as underpaid and ineffective zombies. Health care in the US is modern day indentured service. If only the health care were worth it, I might understand.

There are many who bristle at the concept of government intervention, but policies regarding building safety have been very effective. Without government intervention, engineers would not have a job and the public safety would be constantly at risk. Paul Krugman (not at fringe of debate, he won the Nobel Prize and writes for NYT) says markets can’t work this problem out by themselves. Just as with building safety, policy that has the interests of the public safety as priority will be the best solution. Krugman’s conclusion when comparing the existing system in place in the US vs other countries is

There are, however, no examples of successful health care based on the principles of the free market, for one simple reason: in health care, the free market just doesn’t work. And people who say that the market is the answer are flying in the face of both theory and overwhelming evidence.

Civil engineers are appropriately lauded for their efforts that have made modern society the healthy, enjoyable world that it is. However, our ethical obligations to preserve life safety don’t stop at the built environment. We have a duty, just as with medical doctors, to continue fighting for the public welfare throughout the world.

A recent Structure magazine editorial focused on what structural engineers do. Barry Arnold answers the ultimate engineering question in his article What Do You Do for a Living?

It is time that we quit seeing ourselves as merely designing beams and columns, and start recognizing and proclaiming that we save lives for a living.

I agree. I also think his argument extends beyond the engineering field into society in general. We, as engineers, do have an ethical obligation to support progressive issues that can affect the public welfare. I think all engineers should support health care reform. Not only for the reforms under consideration but for universal coverage. People in the US should be given the opportunity to access our health care system regardless of who they are or how much they earn.

I have never read in the building codes that we can lower our safety factor when designing an apartment that houses lower income populations. Or that immigrants should live in buildings without a lateral load resisting system. Life safety, public welfare. These are not optional in the construction industry. Why is health care different?

This website has reached a milestone, as this is my 101st published post.

I am hoping to hear from my readers, so I’ll be leaving this post up for a week to give all a chance to comment. Stay tuned for more pictures from the neighborhood, updates on the icehouse renovation, iconic structures, controversial Friday posts, and the start of football season. That last part has nothing to do with this website, but just wanted to remind everyone that the Steelers are kicking off the season on Thursday!

Let me know if this website has been any of the following:

• interesting
• useful
• provocative
• inspirational
• waste of time

Alternatively, I am also encouraging anyone who maintains their own blog or website to let us know who they are and where to find them. Communication is a two-way street, I am ready to listen.

Because the US needs to abandon sprawl and invest in its cities in order to have a sustainable future, I try to encourage people to move into existing denser neighborhoods. Needless to say, when you start off every conversation with “have you thought about moving downtown” you get to hear a lot of excuses.

While the historic drivers of surburbanization have mostly been replaced with new concerns, many of the residents’ complaints are still valid. White flight, that odd concept of leaving a city because of minority residents, doesn’t seem to be too relevant. Some people, however, seem to be uncomfortable in neighborhoods where people are out walking on the street. The sight of citizens walking along the sidewalk seems to be enough to scare them away. It just seems too different, too alien. In general though, people focus on the more mundane concerns such as school districts, crime, taxes, and real estate prices.

Suburbs often have an advantage on these issues, but it is an unfair advantage. The urban core hosts many of the necessities required to attract and support a large, working population. Arts, events, sports teams, welfare services, indigent care, and many other aspects of city life still reside in the city. Suburbanites contribute a certain amount of talent and productivity to cities, but much of the tax base continues to decline in US cities. As cities struggle to balance their own budgets, essential city services are cut and the region becomes less attractive for everyone.

It is imperative that cities find out how to both improve services and lower costs if they want to continue to exist. American cities must be resurrected, it is the only way to modernize our economy and prepare for the high energy costs of the future. It falls to us city-dwellers to figure out how to make cities attractive once more.

I think the first topic that any city should address is their school system. In many cases, our urban schools have failed. Even the schools that have brilliant teachers and motivated students are associated with a system that has lost favor in the public eye. Improvements must be system wide or they will not be relevant.

Schools are important because parents want to invest in their children. Parents will change jobs, move across the globe, even sacrifice their own welfare just to give their children an educational advantage. City leaders who neglect their school systems are doomed to see their tax base disappear.

I have no silver bullet solution for this problem. However, I don’t think business-as-usual attitudes will suffice. Strong leadership must come from somewhere, and soon. The public school system, including each individual piece of it, must be held accountable to high performance standards. The charter schools, operating independently of the conventional school system, are a good start but don’t serve enough of the population.

The other issues that give suburbs an advantage are:

• taxes
• housing costs
• crime

These issues are important, but even if you have low taxes / responsible spending, incredibly low housing costs, and low crime rates, you won’t be appealing to the parents who are choosing suburbia. Indianapolis meets these criteria, but has not made progress in attracting residents to the urban core. People are still moving to the suburbs in large numbers.

The cities always roll out the same marketing campaigns to address this issue. The historic homes, the diversity of urban areas, the walkability of urban neighborhoods, the vibrance of the urban core are highlighted. In the end, Indianapolis does manage to attract the young urban types, but only for a few years as they usually start families and move outwards to the suburbs. So, if there is any confusion about the issue allow me to clear it up: people prefer living in older, well-built historic homes with walkable neighborhoods. They tell me all the time. But that isn’t the important issue. Safety and education of the family will always trump other concerns.

People typically don’t understand how to determine if a school system is good or how much crime a certain area has. But they are generally smart enough to spot patterns. Urbanists often criticize suburbs for their homogeneity, but in some ways this is a huge advantage for suburbs. Parents can trust that the local suburban school system will be just as good as the one in the next jurisdiction over, and that the crime levels will be similar too. The commoditized style of living assures parents they are making a safe decision if they locate their family in the suburbs.

We need better schools in our cities. For all, not just some. We know how to achieve this, but nobody has been willing to step up to the plate and fix the entrenched bureaucracy and unions. We also need to learn from the suburbs and provide something easy to understand. The patterns must be easily recognizable. Remove the key advantage that suburbs have. Fix the school system and automatically cities can fix the tax base issue. Once they restore the tax base, cities have a lot more options about fixing the other problems.

No, this isn’t one of my strange ideas, it actually exists. R. Buckminster Fuller and a photographer collaborated on a book that, to my knowledge, is the only extant children’s book (amazon) written from a structural engineer’s point of view.

It is an interesting book, if not short and unfocused in its selection of quotes. I selected my favorite for the scan above “If you want to do something good for a child… give him an environment where he can touch things as much as he wants.” I am not quite sure if this is something I will actually read to children or if it is something I read to remind myself that I was once a child.

R. Buckminster Fuller left a deep legacy, and definitely opened options for architects and structural engineers. The USPS issued a stamp for him in 2004 commemorating his contributions to society.

A new blog website has started here in Indianapolis, so I wanted to share the link.

AmericanDirt
Hometown: Indianapolis, United States
This blog concerns itself with the foundation of American dirt, regardless of where I claim to “live” at that moment. It is the playing field and landscape upon which all living participants tend to their own aspirations, leaving non-indigenous built forms which my aging digital camera hopes to capture.

For starters, I recommend the excellent post concerning the autocentricity of signage in downtown Indianapolis.