John Rutherford (left) and Constantine Chekene (right) met in the 1950s while working together at an engineering consulting firm in San Francisco. In 1960, they decided to form Rutherford + Chekene and offer “site engineering and the design of structure.”
The pair made an excellent match. Rutherford was known by many as, “an engineer’s engineer,” with a deep curiosity and passion for all aspects of building engineering—a quality which lead him to earn his geotechnical engineering license after 30 years as a practicing structural engineer. Chekene was a self-taught structural engineer and a charismatic people-person capable of capturing a room and inspiring his clients and employees alike.
In the early years of their partnership, they worked on many residential structures as well as school and university projects.
The Cannery project marked the early beginnings of R+C’s research and development practice. Located near Fisherman’s Wharf, the project aimed to convert the former cannery into a marketplace with restaurants and shops. The innovative structural concept was one of the first that allowed for the preservation of the existing brick masonry as the dominant building material.
Following the passage of SB519 in 1972, R+C participated in the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Systems Study of VA hospital buildings. The study developed an innovative building system and several major new VA facilities were built using the system—including the Loma Linda Medical Center Ambulatory Pavilion, for which R+C served as the structural engineer for the schematic design phase. This study was R+C’s first hospital project, and the sector still remains a mainstay of our practice today. This project also later lead to R+C’s William Holmes’ participation in the research that formed the backbone of SB1953.
Having been frustrated by what he described as overly-conservative geotechnical estimates and desiring closer collaboration between the structural and geotechnical engineering disciplines, Constantine Chekene advocated for opening an in-house geotechnical engineering department at R+C. Ben J. Lennert, with whom R+C had previously worked on several significant projects, led R+C’s early geotechnical department followed by John Burton in 1978. From 1999 until today, Gyimah Kasali (pictured left with Constantine Chekene) has served as Principal Geotechnical Engineer at R+C.
The Main Quad at Stanford University is home to some of the University’s oldest buildings and holds immense significance as the heart of the campus. The quad was first conceptualized in 1886 by renowned landscape architect Frederick Olmsted, who was also the visionary behind the design of Central Park in New York.
Many of the Main Quad buildings sustained significant damage in the 1906 earthquake, prompting a round of repairs to the affected buildings. However, after the ceiling of room 214 in the History Corner collapsed in 1975, the University decided to embark on a large seismic safety reconstruction of the History Corner—the first project of its kind for Stanford. R+C served as the structural and geotechnical engineer for this renovation, which retained the building’s exterior walls by tying a grid of steel bars to the existing unreinforced masonry walls then spraying on concrete to create new inner support walls, allowing the original stone and brick to act as cladding. The project received several awards, including the 1982 AIA Award of Merit for Excellence in Concrete Construction, and the success of this retrofit approach was proven after the structure survived the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake with minimal damage.
However, several other Main Quad buildings did not fair as well in the 1989 earthquake. R+C was brought in to serve as the structural engineer for repair and seismic strengthening projects at the Geology Corner, the Language Corner, the Portals, and Memorial Church—and also served as the geotechnical engineer on the Geology Corner and Language Corner projects. Extreme care was take to carry out this work in such a way that the quad’s iconic sandstone facades remained virtually untouched. At the Language Corner, an innovative retrofit solution was devised whereby the original exterior sandstone columns were removed and used to make molds for sturdier pre-cast concrete replicas. This innovation became the new standard for Stanford Historic Quad projects and, along with other preservation efforts, earned the Language Corner project the 1997 California Preservation Foundation Award for Craftsmanship/Preservation Technology.
The landmark Monterey Bay Aquarium was a large-scale collaboration between both R+C’s structural and geotechnical departments. Located on Monterey's historic Cannery Row, the project renovated an existing cannery facility into an award-winning destination for marine life education. Two 350,000-gallon, reinforced concrete tanks were installed on decks built largely over piers and six large, high-rate sand filters and several thousand feet of corrosion-resistant pipes were inserted. The second phase of construction involved the addition of the Outer Bay Waters wing, which includes a one-million-gallon seawater tank that features one of the largest acrylic windows in the world. R+C’s co-founder, John Rutherford, was highly involved in the design of the project’s sophisticated seawater filtration system—going as far as to obtain a scuba diving license in his 60s to personally assess the best locations for anchoring the seawater intake system under the aquarium.
Since the completion of the original Monterey Bay Aquarium, R+C has continued to work with the aquarium on a variety of projects both at the Monterey location and at their research center in Moss Landing.
25 years after the formation of R+C, our firm had grown to over 40 people. In that time, technology had undergone significant changes. In 1960, slide rules, carbon paper, and typewriters were prevalent. However, by 1985, calculators had replaced slide rules, copy machines had replaced carbon paper, and the first engineering computer was introduced in the office.
Several of the people pictured here still work at R+C today! Can you spot Afshar Jalalian, Gyimah Kasali, Huong Bui, and Hoai Bui?
On October 17th, 1989, the catastrophic Loma Prieta earthquake struck California. Originating near Santa Cruz, the shock caused extensive damage throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. In the days, weeks, and years following the earthquake, R+C undertook a large amount of seismic evaluation and retrofit projects—helping local businesses and institutions recover.
Image source: USGS
After a decade of working in the structural engineering industry, R+C’s Wayne Wong noticed a significant gap in the market. Nonstructural systems, such as seismic bracing and anchorage of MEP systems and large equipment, were typically an afterthought on projects and were designed according to formulaic, prescriptive methods. Wayne saw an opportunity to save clients time and money by incorporating nonstructural system design into projects earlier and allowing for more flexibility in materials, location, and layout. Today, the department is led by Angela Weng, who worked alongside Wayne for the past 20 years to grow and develop the department into its present success.
The Steve Jobs Building at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, CA is a 220,000 sf building that evokes the look of a converted warehouse with hand-laid brick exteriors and exposed bolted steel beams in the interior. R+C provided structural engineering services for the project, working with award-winning architects and Pixar leaders to bring the vision for this building to life. Due to the importance of meeting movie release dates, R+C and Pixar chose a base isolation system that would resume operations within 48 hours of a major seismic event.
For the project, mock-ups were built by the fabricator to help the architect and owner understand and develop the appearance of the steel structural system, which is exposed throughout the building. Below is a photo of a review of one of these mock-ups with Steve Jobs.
Located approximately 800 feet from the Hayward Fault, the Hearst Memorial Mining Building was designed by campus architect John Galen Howard and opened in 1907. At the time it was opened, mining was a very popular area of study in the wake of the California gold rush.
As the study of mining waned in popularity and the focus turned instead towards material engineering, the campus undertook a major renovation of the building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, to create a modern teaching and research facility for the Material Sciences and Mineral Engineering Departments. R+C served as structural and geotechnical engineer of record for the project which aimed to install base isolation and dampers into the building while preserving its historic character.
To do this, the existing building was supported on “stilts,” primarily consisting of concrete-filled, steel-cased drilled piers projecting out of the ground, which made it possible to dig a deeper basement that could accommodate the isolation elements.
The historic project went on to win multiple awards including a California Preservation Award and a SEAONC Structural Engineering Award of Excellence.
Originally built in 1896, the Ferry Building served as a main transportation hub for people arriving to the city by train and ferry before the opening of the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge.
From 1959 until 1991, the Embarcadero Freeway ran parallel to San Francisco’s waterfront, largely cutting it off from the rest of the city. When the freeway was damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the decision was finally made to tear it down. With the freeway gone, plans were made to renovate the Ferry Building to serve as a focal point for a larger waterfront revitalization effort.
R+C provided structural engineering services for the project, which replaced the over 600-foot central nave of the building with skylights—transforming the interior into a welcoming, light-filled space. The first floor of the building was repurposed to house restaurants and retail shops and the upper two stories were transformed into first-class office space. When it reopened in 2003, the renewed Ferry Building became an iconic San Francisco destination once more. The project received an Outstanding Civil Engineering Project Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers, Golden Gate Branch, San Francisco Section; a California Preservation Foundation Design Award; and an AIA SF Design Award, Honor Award.
Since this major renovation project, R+C has continued to act as a steward of the structure—working on numerous repair and tenant improvement projects over the years.
The de Young Museum, located in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, is a highly unique building in many ways. Designed by the internationally-renowned Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, the three-story main volume of the building consists of three geometrically-irregular bands interspersed with courtyards above which a 9-story twisting tower soars. On the southwestern side of the building, a trellis cantilevers a remarkable 62-feet from the building, and the entire exterior of the museum is covered in custom perforated copper cladding.
Inside, the building possesses a highly irregular floor plan with a myriad of diaphragm openings, expansive cantilevered components, interior bridges spanning 90 feet, 400-foot building wings containing only 20 feet of connection area, and a significant quantity of non-orthogonal connection geometry. In order to protect the museum’s prestigious art collection, the building is base isolated and includes damping.
R+C served as structural and geotechnical engineer for the landmark project, which required extensive ingenuity and pushed the envelope for what is possible in engineering. The de Young Museum received many awards including the SEAOC Excellence in Structural Engineering, Award of Excellence, Landmark Structure.
The 441,000 sf, six-story Mills-Peninsula Medical Center was the first base isolated hospital in Northern California using sliding bearings. The steel brace framed structure is supported on 171 friction pendulum bearings and was designed for immediate occupancy following a major seismic event on the San Andreas Fault. In addition to its remarkable seismic engineering, this acute care hospital was designed as a “technology ready” facility with electronic patient charting and internet-based capabilities for advanced communication among patients, family and physicians. The building was the recipient of the SEAONC Excellence Structural Engineering, New Construction Award and the SEAOC Award of Merit in Landmark Structures.
In the last few decades, R+C has had the honor of continuing to work on many unique, interesting, and first-of-their-kind projects serving a diverse range of clients from higher eduction to science and technology to government, student housing, healthcare, and more. Having recently celebrated our 60 year anniversary, we look forward to providing our clients the same high level of service and expertise for many decades to come.
