b'ACCO Creates, Continues toBuild Out Structural Engineering TeamBy Justin KirchartWe have been talking about this for 25 years, was the common refrain in response to the news that ACCO has created a Structural Engineering team a journey that began in the summer of 2022. With seismic vendors requiring six-to-eight-week lead times to provide structural, seismic bracingPIPE HANGERS AND SUPPORT THAT THE STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING TEAM HAS DESIGNED.and attachment calculations, it was clear ACCO needed an in-house structural engineering team.year, we added Ernie Lemus, Senior Engineer, After a six-month search, we leveraged ourin Pasadena and Michael Gutierrez, Senior BIM contacts and hired Anthony Rubalcava, at the timeModeler, to support the production. Director of Engineering for the Healthcare division at International Seismic Application Technology This team has helped design and value-engineer (ISAT), close to home. designs from other firms for projects including Taiwan Superconductor Manufacturing Company, Anthony has family ties to ACCO: his brotherOlympic and Hill, Lifepoint Hospital, Cosm and Russell is a Detailer, Virtual Construction,others. They developed software tools that Hydronics and his father, Albert, also worked produce standardized designs and submittals at ACCO for several years.for rooftop pipe and duct stands, equipment attachment and attachment for vibration-isolated After hiring Anthony as the Engineering Teamhanging equipment. These tools are capable Lead, we focused on identifying the resourcesof quickly inputting necessary information and and capabilities needed to address the relevantsubsequently producing a complete set of business requirements of each of our projects.calculations and submittals for review by the In HVAC engineering, there are many softwareapproving jurisdictional authority. packages designed specifically to calculate heat load, pressure drop and heat loss. This is notLooking ahead, Engineering plans to develop the case in the world of seismic and attachmentsoftware tools to address the design and layout design, a niche that necessitates building our toolsof seismic bracing for piping and ductwork and to efficiently design attachment of equipment,begin designing our vibration isolation equipment piping and ductwork.bases. Now that our Structural Engineering team is a reality, we expect momentum in executing To develop the required tools, we needed theengineering tasks under ACCO principles, while right team. We added Magdalena Cejudo, Leadalso fostering continual growth in our capacity Engineer and Priscila Garcia, Design Engineer, toas structural engineers. We are grateful for our work with Anthony in Costa Mesa programmingStructural Engineering team and look forward to design tools and doing project work. The nextACCOs continued success.ACCOLADES|13'