In October 2024 I gave an NCSEA webinar on the fundamentals of structural curtainwall design to a little over 200 engineers, and followed it up with an article on the same topic for STRUCTURE Magazine. I’m still early in my career and have a lot to learn. But I’ve always liked teaching, and I think facade engineering could use more of it.

Curtainwall sits in a gap. Most structural engineering programs barely touch it, and most of the facade knowledge out there lives inside fabricators and a handful of specialty consultants. Meanwhile the systems keep getting more ambitious - closed-cavity facades, terracotta and sintered stone rainscreens, fly-by conditions - and the engineers reviewing them are often seeing them for the first time.

Teaching is how that gap closes. An EOR who understands how a unitized panel carries load asks better questions. A contractor who understands why a deflection limit exists installs to it. A condo board that understands what an inspection can and can’t tell them makes better decisions about their building.

It also makes me better. Nothing finds the fuzzy spots in your own understanding faster than trying to explain it to 200 people. Putting the webinar and the article together forced me to organize years of project experience into first principles - load paths, movements, interfaces - and those show up in how I run every project now.

The article and webinar are on our Press page. If your firm or association wants a session on curtainwall fundamentals, get in touch. I’m always glad to present.