May 2014      ORANGE COUNTY BRANCH Branch president urges region’s CEs to ‘prepare now’ for earthquakes “If you didn’t feel the magnitude 5.1 shaker on Friday, March 28th centered in La Habra, you missed an all-too familiar event that’s part of living here in California,” writes Penny Lew, Orange County Branch president, in her latest President’s Message. “But many Californians are in denial and don’t believe that ‘the Big One’ will occur any time soon or during their lifetime so preparedness is not one of their priorities.  Since we don’t have a crystal ball that can tell the seismologists when exactly this might happen, we’re just going to have to prepare ourselves.  But we have to prepare now as we also live under the threat of activity from other lesser-known faults that could cause significant or catastrophic damage. … [A]re we as civil engineers, prepared to deal with the consequences of an event the scientists are telling will us will inevitably occur?”  Consider Lew’s appeal in the Branch’s April newsletter.  Read message>>   Branch website>> SAN FRANCISCO SECTION GHD briefs Younger Members on projects, provides office tour Photo courtesy Erik Moreno, P.E., M.ASCE The San Francisco office of GHD, one of the world's leading engineering, architecture and environmental consulting companies, recently hosted ASCE San Francisco Section Younger Member Forum members for a great office tour. After some socializing/networking over pizza, attendees were treated to a very interesting presentation by GHD staff on a few standout projects, including the design challenges they faced on the new 49ers stadium. Then, the hosts gave a tour of their office, including their amazing views.   See gallery>>   Younger Member Forum website>> LOS ANGELES SECTION Sustainability symposium explores Envision project, drought challenges The Los Angeles Section staged a multi-pronged look at addressing sustainability in a symposium held this month at the John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies at Cal Poly Pomona. The center’s environmental focus made it a natural location for considering sustainability, and the symposium began with a tour of the 16-acre living laboratory that sets an example for southern California. Sean P. Vargas of Psomas gave an overview of the Envision sustainability planning and rating tool based on the South Los Angeles Wetland Park as a case study, which received an Envision platinum rating, the highest possible. Vargas was project executive for the park, the first and only city project to go through the Envision process. Then, in the context of California’s most severe drought emergency in decades,  Maryam Shafahi of Cal Poly discussed the application of aquaponics, an eco-friendly system for food production utilizing aquaculture and hydroponics to cultivate fish and crops without soil.  Section website>> SAN FRANCISCO SECTION Earthquake engineering expert wins ASCE’s Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award Robert K. Reitherman, executive director of the Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering, has won the Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award for compiling and authoring the outstanding book Earthquakes and Engineers – An International History (ASCE Press, 2012). The extremely comprehensive book covers the seismology and earthquake engineering fields and the notables involved from ancient times to the present. Reitherman leads CUREE, an association of two dozen universities with civil engineering programs devoted to earthquake engineering. Learn more about Reitherman’s award-worthy achievement in ASCE News. SAN FRANCISCO SECTION Berkeley professor receives ASCE’s Huber Research Prize Alexandre M. Bayen, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California Berkeley, is a 2014 winner of ASCE’s Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize. Bayen is honored for pioneering design and deployment of mobile sensing and measurement to the design and management of civil engineering systems, and path-breaking research on algorithm design and implementation in the control and optimization of transportation networks. Learn more about Bayen’s award-worthy achievement in ASCE News. LOS ANGELES SECTION California and Houston-based oil and gas geotechnical engineer elected ASCE Fellow Richard A. Sullivan, P.E., F.ASCE, active in geotechnical and geoenvironmental offshore oil and gas projects around the world during a lengthy career in Houston and in southern California, has been elected an ASCE Fellow. While in Houston, Sullivan worked on geotechnical projects for industrial plants, levees and docks, and offshore oil and gas piled platforms. Later in California, he worked on site environmental assessments, permitting, environmental rehabilitation, construction control, and postclosure monitoring, notably at a Superfund site in Burbank. Learn more of what made Sullivan worthy of election as a Fellow in ASCE News. LOS ANGELES SECTION Unique canopy tops new art ‘village’ at Pomona College The Studio Arts Hall now under construction at the liberal arts college in California is a 180-degree departure in concept and design from the campus’s traditional Spanish mission-style structures. See the novel new look in ASCE’s online Civil Engineering magazine. Read story>> SAN FRANCISCO SECTION Decades-old San Francisco office tower is reborn The Pacific Telephone Building is transformed into a desirable space for contemporary technology firms thanks to an adaptive-use project that includes a seismic retrofit. Explore how a 1925 building is being made 21st century-friendly in ASCE’s online Civil Engineering magazine .Read story>> Outreach event? Successful activity? Announce it here! If you’re a local ASCE leader and your Section, Branch, Younger Member Group, or Student Chapter has staged any special events, engaged in outreach from grade-school kids to lawmakers, or anything of the sort, let ASCEnews Weekly know and we may include it in next month’s Region report. You may already have written about it and posted pictures in your newsletter, website, or social media. Share the details and any photos at asce.org/localnews. Got questions? Write to submissions@asce.org. See the other Region reports for May If you live adjacent to a Section in a different Region, or are merely interested in the other Region reports for May, click on each to view them:   Region 1   Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section, Buffalo Section, Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers Section, Ithaca Section, Maine Section, Metropolitan Section, Mohawk-Hudson Section, New Hampshire Section, New Jersey Section, Puerto Rico Section, Rhode Island Section, Rochester Section, Syracuse Section, Vermont Section Region 2   Central Pennsylvania Section, Delaware Section, Lehigh Valley Section, Maryland Section, National Capital Section, Philadelphia Section, Pittsburgh Section Region 3   Akron-Canton Section, Central Illinois Section, Central Ohio Section, Cincinnati Section, Cleveland Section, Dayton Section, Duluth Section, Illinois Section, Michigan Section, Minnesota Section, North Dakota Section, Quad Cities Section, Toledo Section, Wisconsin Section Region 4   Arkansas Section, Indiana Section, Kentucky Section, North Carolina Section, South Carolina Section, Tennessee Section, Virginia Section, West Virginia Section Region 5   Alabama Section, Florida Section, Georgia Section, Louisiana Section, Mississippi Section   Region 6   New Mexico Section, Oklahoma Section, Texas Section Region 7   Colorado Section, Iowa Section, Kansas City Section, Kansas Section, Nebraska Section, South Dakota Section, St. Louis Section, Wyoming Section Region 8   Alaska Section, Arizona Section, Columbia Section, Hawaii Section, Inland Empire Section, Montana Section, Nevada Section, Oregon Section, Seattle Section, Southern Idaho Section, Tacoma-Olympia Section, Utah Section Region 9   Los Angeles Section, Sacramento Section, San Diego Section, San Francisco Section Region 10   All International Sections, Branches, and Groups Missed last month's Region 9 update? See the April edition of  News Around Region 9  Send this page via social media and email: