With environmental sustainability becoming the focal point of national discourse, and extreme weather intensifying and occurring more frequently, our buildings need to be sustainable and resilient to mitigate damage to both the built environment and surrounding ecosystem. Researchers are...

Simpson Strong-Tie was built on the idea of making strong connections. That concept extends beyond our structural innovations for raising or supporting strong, resilient buildings and communities. We use social media and our two company blogs to have conversations, not only about our products...

Part IX: Windows into Truss Design Two unstoppable waves merged to form the tsunami that swept over truss design in the 1990s. The first was the mass commercialization of the PC, accelerated by Michael Dell in the late 1980s. The second was the graphical user interface (GUI), exploited by our...

Early every year, the National Frame Building Association (NFBA) holds its annual Frame Building Expo—where thousands of post-frame builders, design professionals, and vendors meet for three days filled with break-out sessions, guest presenters, and, of course, a trade show. In...

Because of their limited structural redundancy and exposure to weather, cantilevered balconies require special attention by design professionals, contractors, permitting and inspection departments, and owners in-service. As shown in the photos, modern wood-framed, multi-family projects often...

Doug Allen, P.E., a structural engineer with Simpson Strong-Tie, looks at the choice homeowners in disaster-prone areas face between simply building to code and building to standards of resilience or IBHS FORTIFIED Home™ standards instead. Resilience, or resiliency: The capacity to...

Now that one third of owner-occupied housing is tightly packed into metro areas, several challenges face our industry. Estimating requires more attention to architectural features and options. Engineering is critical on taller structures, and often requires consideration of mechanical...

Part VIII: Layout Without Windows At BCMC in Jacksonville in 1990, the PC had begun to “steal the show,” especially that of the upstart A.C.E.S. Their layout program was a quantum leap over the decade old work of C&G Micrographics on the Apple Computer. It also had several...

The Simpson Strong-Tie® 2019–2020 Wood Construction Connectors catalog is the first in the industry with updated connector allowable load tables to meet the new ASTM test standards required by the 2015 and 2018 International Building Code® (IBC®). It is designed to...

Part VII: A Computer for Every Designer In 1980, for the first time, I witnessed the PC doing trusses. Then, over the next 10 years, I watched that machine take over every designer’s desktop. Getting to that end, though, wasn’t easy. Unprecedented technological change roiled our...