Today in History – March 31, 1889 – Eiffel Tower opens. The 300m Eiffel Tower was commissioned to commemorate the French Revolution. Amazingly, all of the elements were prepared in Gustav Eiffel’s factory located at Levallois-Perret on the outskirts of Paris. There were 18,000 pieces used to construct the Tower. Each piece was designed and [...]

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Today in History – March 14, 1927 – First female engineer in ASCE. Elsie Eaves was the first woman in the US to be elected as a full member to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). When ASCE was founded in 1852, its membership was restricted to men, a policy which eventually led to [...]

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The 7.0 Magnitude Earthquake in Haiti struck a highly populated region of this impoverished Caribbean island approximately 17 km from the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of thousands died,  many more injured, many buildings were  destroyed or seriously damaged, infrastructures collapsed and millions became homeless and without food and water. The Haiti earthquake created a [...]

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Today in History- January 15, 1955 – first solar-heated and radiation-cooled house in the United States. Respect for the powers of the sun has been a critical part of building design since humans first built shelters for protection from the environment. I grew up in the American Southwest and recall that adobe buildings were designed [...]

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Today in History – January 12, 2010 – 7.0 Magnitude Earthquake in Haiti. The earthquake struck a highly populated region of this impoverished Caribbean island approximately 17 km from the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of thousands died,  many more injured, many buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged, infrastructures collapsed and millions became homeless and [...]

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