Mark Sarkisian: Rational, Environmentally Responsible Structures

About This Event

Rational, Environmentally Responsible Structures
A special presentation of Structural Analysis II

Population growth continues at a rapid rate around the globe with environmental impacts taking their toll. Carbon dioxide and pollutants continue to be emitted seemingly uncontrollably from industrialization, transportation, and new construction. Until recently, carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide equivalent emissions resulting from operation of buildings have been studied with attempts to reduce the impact through lower energy use. However, little attention has been given to the embodied carbon in infrastructure and buildings until recently. With embodied carbon embraced as a major environmental contributor, the full impact of carbon can be considered. For multi-story buildings constructed today, it can take 20 years for the operational carbon to overtake the impact from the embodied carbon included in the structure at the time it is built.

Environmentally responsible design of our future cities is imperative. The use of raw materials, time to build, and probabilistic damage all impact embodied carbon over a buildings service life. The presentation will focus on the most creative ways of addressing each issue through inventive design of structures that coexist with architecture. Specific examples ranging from research through built projects will be discussed for multiple international locations.

About Mark Sarkisian

Mark Sarkisian, PE, SE, NAE, LEED BD+C, is a Partner of Structural and Seismic Engineering at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in San Francisco, California. He received his BS Degree in Civil Engineering from University of Connecticut where he is a Fellow of the Academy of Distinguished Engineers and his MS Degree in Structural Engineering from Lehigh University. He also received an honorary Sc.D degree from Clarkson University and an honorary MS degree from the Politecnico di Milano. In 2021, he was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in the United States. His career has focused on developing innovative structural engineering solutions for over 100 major building projects around the world, including some of the world’s tallest. Mark holds 15 U.S. and international patents for high-performance seismic structural mechanisms and environmentally responsible structural systems. He teaches studio design courses at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Cal Poly, California College of the Arts, North Carolina State University, Northeastern University, and the Pratt Institute and has the written the book entitled Designing Tall Buildings – Structure as Architecture with the second edition recently released by Routledge-Taylor & Francis.