CTBUH Chairman (2001-2006)
Board of Trustees, Trustee (2008-2010)
Advisory Group, Member (1996-2010)
International Research Seed Funding, Peer Review Panel (2012, 2013)
Working Group; Siesmic Design, Co-Chair (2007-present)
Committee; Membership, Chair (1991-1993)
Award Recipient, CTBUH Fellow (2011)
Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Seattle, USA
rklemencic@mka.com
Ron Klemencic is President of Magnusson Klemencic Associates, an award-winning structural and civil engineering firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices in Shanghai, Riyadh, and Chicago.
Ron earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Purdue University in 1985 and his Masters in Structural Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1986. Over the course of his 24-year career, he has acquired a reputation as an “idea guy”, offering creative engineering solutions, value-added innovations, and an innate ability to see the big picture.
In addition to presenting on a variety of structural design issues at professional conferences around the world, Ron has instructed graduate students at the University of Washington, University of California Berkeley, and University of Illinois, among others. His published research papers in the field of tall buildings including research results on post-tensioned floor slabs and reinforced concrete core wall connections, large-scale reinforced concrete link (coupling) beams, dual-plate composite core walls (steel plate shear walls), and more. He recently led the development and adoption throughout the U.S. of "Performance-Based Seismic Design" (PBSD) methodology for high-rise buildings, which provides buildings with increased safety, reliability, and flexibility at a reduced cost. Ron was named 2008 Structural Engineer of the Year by the Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings Journal, and he was also a 2008 Top 25 Engineering News Record Newsmaker for his work advancing PBSD.
Ron is Past Chairman of the Council on Tall Buildings and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Concrete Institute and the Charles Pankow Foundation, a voting member of multiple American Concrete Institute committees, and a member of the Chicago Committee on High-Rise Buildings, the Concrete Technology Advisory Committee of the Portland Cement Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Urban Land Institute, to name a few. He is a registered engineer in 13 U.S. states with designs covering the spectrum of project types and materials. Ron’s international experience includes projects in 20 countries, such as 112-story Doha Tower and Convention Center in Qatar, 49-story 21st Century Tower in Shanghai, the 73-story High Cliff Apartments in Hong-Kong, and the Peer Review of the 1km tall, Kingdom Tower in Jeddah.
His published books and research papers in the field of Tall Buildings include:
FRY, J.A., HOOPER, J, & KLEMENCIC, R. (2009). Core Wall Case Study Design for PEER/CSSC. The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings (Sixth Annual Special Issue), December 2009. Published by the Los Angeles Tall Building Structural Design Council (Proceedings of the May 2009 annual meeting of the Los Angeles Tall Building Structural Design Council).
JOHANSSON, O., LAHEY, J., KLEMENCIC, R. & WOLF, M. (2008). A Tale of Two Cities: Collaborative Innovations for Sustainable Towers. Proceedings of the CTBUH 8th World Congress, 3rd-5th March 2008. Dubai, UAE. Published by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Chicago. pp.362-372.
FRY, J.A., HOOPER, J., KLEMENCIC, R., & MORGEN, B. (2007). Performance-Based Design of Ductile Core Wall Systems -- Issues to Consider Before Detailed Analysis. The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings (Fourth Annual Special Issue), December 2007. Published by the Los Angeles Tall Building Structural Design Council (Proceedings of the May 2007 annual meeting of the Los Angeles Tall Building Structural Design Council).
FRY, J. A., HURTADO, G., KLEMENCIC, R. & MOEHLE, J. P. (2006). Performance of Post-Tensioned Slab-Core Wall Connections. PTI Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, December 2006. Farmington Hills, USA. pp.7-23.
KLEMENCIC, R. (2003). Towards Better and Safer Built Environment. Proceedings of CIB/CTBUH Conference, 20th-23rd October 2003. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Published by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Chicago. pp.1-5.
KLEMENCIC, R. (2003). Where Do We Go From Here? - In the Aftermath of the World Trade Center Attacks. Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) Journal 2003, Spring Issue. Chicago, USA. pp.30-34.