Torn Notebook - People: J. Robert Jennings

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J. Robert Jennings
Structural Engineer

image of J. Robert Jennings, Structural Engineer

What were the challenges of fabricating this piece?
"As you can see this is a very, what I would call an airy piece. The elements are relatively thin and it's supported only at one point, so even the most lay of the laymen would look at that and might say, it might be a little bit hard to make stand up. Then on top of that we have to impose wind loads, snow loads, people loads. Sometimes it's people crawling on it that proves to be the most critical aspect."

What activity would the fabricators find most difficult?
"One problem that I might have anticipated if I were to guess at what might occur or might be a problem, was the coordination of all this bending. You know we have a lot of concentric bends going on here where one page is overlapping another page and is overlapping a pipe. It's very difficult, the technical process of getting those bends just right, so they're fitting properly together."

"As structural engineer I am very grateful for having this kind of work in which to demonstrate my structural abilities, as opposed to sitting in front of a computer and cranking out the same bridge design over and over again. It is quite a fun process."
-- J. Robert Jennings

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