Thornton Tomasetti honored with top awards at SEA-MWs Excellence in Structural Engineering Dinner

Washington, D.C. – Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm, announces that two of its projects – CityCenterDC in Washington, D.C., and the Port Canaveral Welcome Center in Port Canaveral, Fla. – received top honors at the recent Excellence in Structural Engineering awards dinner hosted by the Structural Engineering Association of Metropolitan Washington (SEA-MW).  Now in its eighth year, the awards gala recognizes excellence in structural engineering in several categories.

Christopher Crilly, P.E., a senior project engineer in Thornton Tomasetti’s Washington, D.C. office, was also the recipient of the Association’s Rising Star award, a new honor that recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to the organization.

The SEA-MW is a professional organization dedicated to connecting the structural engineering industry, and encourages engineering education and good practices. The SEA-MW offers a forum for engineers to share ideas and design and construction information from recent projects they have been involved with.

CityCenterDC – Washington, D.C.
This project received the “Outstanding Award for New Construction” in the $50 million-plus category.

Thornton Tomasetti provided structural services for the project, a redevelopment of a 10-acre site in downtown Washington, D.C. The firm was involved in the design of two, 11-story office buildings and below-grade parking for more than 1,500 vehicles.

The office buildings offer a combined 520,000 SF of office space as well as 185,000 SF of retail and dining options. The structures consist of post-tensioned concrete with shear-wall lateral systems.

The below-grade parking garage was designed as four structures connected by expansion joints. The reinforced concrete structure spans the entire site and serves as a foundation for the office buildings, residential buildings and a public plaza.

Port Canaveral Welcome Center – Port Canaveral, Fla.
This project received the “Outstanding Award for New Construction” in the $10-$50 million category.

Thornton Tomasetti completed construction design for the seven-story Port Canaveral Welcome Center, which features historical exhibits based on the region. The Center also offers indoor and outdoor observation decks, an 83-seat theatre, meeting space, and a café.

The firm worked with Skanska Building USA to provide construction support services, including a full Tekla model, steel shop drawings and connection design.

Structural features of the Center include a curved metal-panel shell supported by segmented columns and curved wind girts; an exposed curved steel-tube canopy that extends 60-feet above the seventh floor deck; hurricane-level lateral loads resisted by two concrete cores that house the egress stairs; and pile cap foundations with precast concrete piles extending 95 feet into the soil.

Christopher Crilly, P.E.
Crilly spearheaded the development of the Young Members Group of the SEA-MW. The group, whose goal is to promote involvement in the organization for engineers early in their career, also participates in community service projects and provides educational opportunities for its members.

He joined Thornton Tomasetti in 2007 and has nine years of experience working with new and existing structures for a variety of building types, including healthcare, office, educational, hospitality and residential. Crilly is responsible for overall project management, structural analysis and design, the production of structural drawings and construction administration.

Recent work includes the mixed-use 67-story Torre Koi office/residential complex in Monterrey, Mexico and the Marriott Marquis hotel in Washington, D.C. Crilly also served as the engineer and project manager for a portion of CityCenterDC, a mixed-use development in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ MH-47 Aviation Maintenance Hangar in Fort Campbell, Ky.

Crilly holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architectural engineering from Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pa.