Dr. Mohammed Ettouney organized and spoke at a symposium on December 9, 2009, sponsored jointly by the Architectural Engineering Institute of ASCE and the Steel Ornamental Metal Institutes of New York, which addressed the technical aspects of designing buildings for longevity.

New York, NY – Dr. Mohammed M. Ettouney will deliver closing remarks at the upcoming symposium: “Aging Buildings: Designing for Longevity,” organized by the Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI) of ASCE and the Steel and Ornamental Metal Institutes of New York. It is the fourth in a series of programs organized by these groups. The day-long symposium, which will take place December 9, 2009, in New York City, will cover topics such as Innovations in Building Engineering, Recladding for Longevity, and Longevity and Sustainability Design.

Ettouney pointed out: “Despite most of the nation’s political and economic capital now focused on returning highways and bridges to sound condition, growing interest in sustainability should be raising awareness of the need not only to reduce overall energy and virgin material inputs, carbon emissions, and landfill waste, but also to design buildings in a way that increases their longevity.”

Ettouney is chair of AEI's Continuing Education committee and of the Symposium Steering committee. He organized the event to increase awareness of the impact of quality design, especially as it relates to maintenance costs over a building’s life span. Designing a building to operate as efficiently as possible so that it develops fewer functional problems, from leaky curtain walls to corroded steel, is the long-term goal. Many leading experts are also eager for the LEED point system of the U.S. Green Building Council to reward strategies that increase a structure’s longevity. In this respect, the U.S. lags behind Canada and many other countries.

Ettouney has taken ownership of a multidisciplinary, multi-hazard approach to the health and safety of structures as a recent president of ASCE’s Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI) and the leader of numerous symposiums in New York and throughout the country. He continues to inspire individuals from the various built environment professions—who commonly tend to their own concerns—to work more closely in defining and exploiting a global viewpoint towards structures, especially as it relates to safety and preventive maintenance.

Heavily involved in the economics, life cycle costs, and cost benefits of structural health monitoring, Ettouney is co-author of a soon-to-be-published book, Structural Health in Civil Engineering, which argues for ensuring that structures do not degrade, fail, or require expensive retrofits through lack of attention at the beginning or throughout their life spans. He views structures much as a doctor who believes in preventive medicine views the human body, arguing that it is wiser and more cost-efficient to head off sickness before it takes root. His goal is to replace what he calls the “5% solution” of paying attention only when something bad happens.

In June 2008, Ettouney received the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Homer Gage Balcom Award, a lifetime achievement honor named for the engineer of Empire State building. Ettouney is an active member of the American Society of Non-Destructive Testing (ASNT) and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). He was recently designated a Fellow of the AEI and is currently a member or chair of several ASCE, ASNT, and AISC committees. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and has been with Weidlinger Associates since 1984. He has a BS in civil engineering (1969), MS in structural engineering (1972) from Cairo University, ScD in structural mechanics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1976), and MBA from Long Island University (1980).