Weathering the Future
Join RAINA at their 2026 conference held in Portland. Offering 5 HSW credits over 5 presentations featuring multiple Portland BEC members.
Presentation 1 Tyler Smith, BEE Engineers
Why Building Owners Don’t Buy Rainscreens: The Human Side of Resilient Construction
Presentation 2 Emma Mahoney & Jeffrey Kerr, SGH
Finding Closure: Integrating Architectural Cavity Closures into the Rainscreen Assembly for Durable Design
Presentation 3 David Young, RDH Building Science Inc
Rainscreen Reality Check: Designing for Movement, Resilience, and Real-World Performance
Presentation 4 Corey Zussman, AECOM Hunt
Rainscreen backup wall design considerations and lessons learned for better coordination between trades
Presentation 5 Jake LaManna, Walsh Construction Company, Brian Nelson, Knight Wall Systems, Geoff Duck, Cascadia and moderated by Paul Grahovac
Look Before You Leap: An Inside View of Rainscreen Retrofits
Steel Tolerances And How To Design For Them
This presentation will cover all things steel tolerances. Understanding how straight a beam should be to how much lean a column can have is essential to producing a good design that avoids field fixes and compromise in the architectural design. The presentation will cover the AISC 303 “Code of standard practice for steel buildings” which is the document that the steel specifications reference for allowable fabrication and installation tolerances of steel members. Understanding this document is essential to being able to produce a design with the appropriate amount of tolerance so there are not clashes between the steel elements and architectural finishes. The presentation will also cover how steel tolerances can impact the ability to have flat floors and how to best set up the design documents to get the best product for the owner.
Seth Thomas, P.E., S.E., works at KPFF Consulting Engineers and is a licensed structural engineer. Seth has been involved in the code development process his entire career and currently is a voting member of the tsunami, flood, seismic and main committees for the ASCE 7-28 while serving as the Vice Chair of the seismic subcommittee. Seth has been involved in multiple performance based seismic design projects including OSU Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building, the Portland International Airport PDXNext Project, Multnomah County Central Courthouse (MCCCH), and the VA Portland Hospital Seismic Retrofit.