When designing a building, a structural engineer is concerned with two important factors: strength and stability. If an engineer misses either of the two things, a design might end up being a fiasco. Consider strength and stability as two sides of a same coin. When you use an umbrella during a windy situation, what happens to it? It losses its stability and turns inside out, but it does not break. This is a fine example of strength vs stability.

Engineering may be a science, but that doesn’t mean there’s not art and beauty to be found in our built environment.

We asked our staff which movies they thought are most notable for featuring engineering concepts that either saved the movie's main character(s), was praised or successful in the film, or key to the movie's storyline. Some of the films involve mechanical and aeronautical engineering, some actually featured structural engineering. If you haven't seen these, be sure to check them out on Netflix or your favorite movie channel. Maybe there are movies you would add to the list.

A developer weighing whether to pull the trigger on building a high-rise hotel or condominium project has to consider a myriad of factors. Is the market for their product ripe? Are interest rates advantageous? Does the project pencil out financially?

April 1st, 2015 marked the two year anniversary of the merge between DCI Engineers and Structural Design Engineers (SDE), a San Francisco firm founded by Raj Sahai in 1984. Now as part of DCI’s leadership team, Principals Raj Sahai and Jack Laws provide valuable insight into San Francisco’s architectural and engineering community and culture. This blog begins a series of posts about their structural engineering achievements for the city.

A dynamic skyline with its glistening crystalline towers is often the image used to define a city, but what gives a city its unique character is its historic buildings. Unfortunately, far too often these structures remain abandoned or torn down. A large part of the problem is bringing these structures up to modern building code standards, which is often a daunting task few developers are willing to undertake.

Happy Holidays from all of us at DCI Engineers. We are thankful for the friends, family and colleagues who have made this a great year for all of us at DCI. In honor of that, we've put together a video message of kindness that we hope you enjoy. Please help us spread kindness with our Pay It Forward Campaign and win an iPad mini! All you need to do is visit our Facebook page and we will make a donation on your behalf AND enter you into a contest!