Zapatista Restaurant Opening a 2nd Location
Repeat Business! With the success of their first Zapatista Restaurant in Northbrook the owners retained the architectural firm of Warren Architects; the structural engineering consultant, W-T Civil Engineering; and MEP engineering firm, W-T Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, LLC to keep the momentum and expand the winning streak in Naperville.
The Naperville restaurant has been slightly modified from the Northbrook location to meet the unique features of the site. These include relocating the outdoor fireplace, modify the roof elevations, increasing the span of the exterior wood beams, adding a glass entrance way, and reducing the overall floor area.
The single-story 6,800 square foot structure includes outdoor seating areas with a fireplace and authentic Mexican “south of the border” ambiance throughout the dining areas. The architect for the project, Warren Architects commissioned W-T Civil Engineering to provide the full-service structural engineering design for the facility.
The revised “open space” layout of the building provided other challenges to the structural framing of the structure than the original. With the modified roof levels the diaphragm rigidity and anticipated deflections were re-analyzed to provide the necessary lateral stability of the vertical support members and limit the horizontal drift of the building.
The exposed architectural timber columns and beams have been lengthened to provide more space for the exterior dining areas 
as seen in the rendering to the left which was generated using AutoCAD REVIT Building Information System (BIM). The structural element design was facilitated by integrating the RISA Building System computer software with REVIT.
We hope the success of this project will convince the owners to go for “three in a row.”
W-T Civil Engineering completes the “Post Disaster Safety Evaluation of Building” Training
Jeff Gutowsky of W-T Civil Engineering completed the ATC (Applied Technology Council) 20-1 “Post-Seismic Safety Evaluation of Buildings” and the ATC 45 “Post-Flood and Wind Safety Evaluation of Buildings” and “Post-Fire Safety Evaluation of Buildings” training course offered through The Structural Engineers Association of Illinois.
The ATC 20-1 & 45 provides procedures and guidelines for the safety evaluation of damaged buildings. These procedures and guidelines are written specifically for volunteer structural engineers, as well as building inspectors, and structural engineers from city building departments and other regulatory agencies, who would be required to make on-the-spot evaluations and decisions regarding the continued use and occupancy of damaged buildings. The successful completion of the course is the first step in becoming an Evaluator for the Safety Assessment Program (SAP).
The SAP utilizes volunteers and mutual aid resources to provide professional engineers and architects and certified building inspectors to assist local governments in safety evaluation of their built environment in an aftermath of a disaster. The goal of the SAP is to help local government perform accurate facility safety assessments as quickly as possible. This will allow people to use safe homes and businesses, and ensure that people are prohibited from entering unsafe structures after a disaster. SAP Evaluators survey damaged facilities to determine if there are safety hazards to building occupants or to the general public. SAP Evaluators also provide recommended posting of placards that denote the condition of each structure evaluated.
The program is managed by Cal EMA (California Emergency Management Agency) with cooperation from professional organizations.
The Cal EMA SAP provides experienced professionals who can quickly evaluate damaged structures, identifying those that are safe for occupancy to which people can return, while marking those that are unsafe or have restricted use. It accepts civil, structural, geotechnical, and architect licenses from any state, along with many International Code Council building inspector certifications.
SAP has been used successfully in responding to disasters, such as the Northridge, Napa, and San Simeon earthquakes in California, as well as in response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Cal EMA SAP evaluators were sent to Louisiana and Mississippi to assist in building safety evaluation under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.
More information on the SAP can be found at its website. Go to www.oes.ca.gov, select the “Recovery” heading, then the “Safety Assessment Program” link. The site contains upcoming classes, a list of trainers, downloadable manuals, and other information.
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