NARRATOR: Engineer Ken Maschke loves living
and working in the city of Chicago.
And from Ken's viewpoint it's the structures
that help bring the city to life. Every day he
gets to move to the pulse of a city filled with
vitality, or ride, or climb, even skate.
MASCHKE: Just in time.
NARRATOR: Ken is a licensed civil engineer
at Thornton Thomasetti, a world-renowned
engineering firm.
MASCHKE: Civil engineering is really the jack
of all trades of the engineering profession. It
includes transportation, structures--what I do--
there's geotechnical, construction, water
resources. Together, it's mostly about the
infrastructure that we all use and we live in.
NARRATOR: Civil engineering goes back to
the earliest days of civilization.
If anyone's responsible for building this country,
it's civil engineers.
MASCHKE: Civil engineering is really a
people-serving profession, especially when
nature throws us a curved ball. When it comes to
hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, civil
engineers are there to make sure that the
buildings, the bridges, and the infrastructure
stays operating and stays safe for people.
NARRATOR: Ken and his team specialize
in structural engineering.
MASCHKE: Very simply put, structural
engineering is making things stand up.
Already in my career, I have worked on a
huge variety of projects. I've worked on
baseball stadiums, football stadiums, practice
fields, I've worked on high-rises here in Chicago,
and even internationally, in Denmark,
and in the UAE, in Dubai.
The architect usually gives us a pretty picture
of the skin of the building. A structural
engineer really looks behind that into the guts
and the bones that hold up that skin.
NARRATOR: The team is on their way to one
of Chicago's most beloved icons.
Rising from the ashes, 17 years after the
Great Chicago Fire, the Rookery building
was completed in 1888.
MASCHKE: Many times we get involved with
historic construction and trying to preserve it.
At the Rookery building, we're going in evaluating
the existing structure and just trying to come
up with new ways so that crews
can keep it in top shape.
MAN: The walls are basic masonry barrier
walls and the interior is all steel frames
from construction.
NARRATOR: In the drawings, the civil engineers
see a story of imagination and innovation.
MASCHKE: Pretty cool.
NARRATOR: Elevators, electric lighting, panel
glass windows, fireproofing, features that
define the modern skyscraper.
Ken has a desk, but you'll rarely find him there.
MASCHKE: Let's open up the drawings and
see if we can find out what's going on. Looks
like there's a step here, so I'm betting, you
see how they have the two beams adjacent to
each other, then one of these is going to be
high for this part, this bay could have a little
more snow load on it.
NARRATOR: Then it's off to a presentation.
Remarkably, Ken's day has just begun.
Ken grew up on a farm, so you'd think the big
city would mean a big adjustment. But
in just a few short years, he has developed
a special connection to the city.
MASCHKE: One of the reasons I went into
structural engineering, it's because I wanted
to be able to show people what I worked on.
I've worked on that building over there.
Here's another building I've worked on;
another one on this side of the river.
We've worked on the Chicago Board
of Trade building, too.
When I was in high school I didn't know
necessarily that I wanted to be a civil
engineer. I was good in math and science,
but I think the best engineers are those that
are very well rounded and bring together
a lot of different ideas.
NARRATOR: Some of Ken's projects involve
routine structural maintenance. Others
push structural design to the limits.
MASCHKE: Imagine putting a 50-storey
building on top of Union Station.
That's what structural engineers do.
This meant that we need to look at all the
existing foundations and the columns, and
imagine a way to support the weight of a new
structure on top of what it was already there.
NARRATOR: What most folks don't see are the
design challenges that Ken has to face.
MASCHKE: If a wind gust were to go and hit
the building, this is the behavior that it would
most likely start to move as. If it moves too
quickly or too much, people might get sick,
and then there's no way you could sell space
on the top floor.
NARRATOR: A city would not be a city without
building like these or without rail lines, bridges
and roads, water and sewage systems.
Things people count on to keep their city working.
MASCHKE: There is a lot of work that's involved
with maintaining all of these parts of the
infrastructure. And I guess engineers need to be
a little more like Clark Kent than Superman.
NARRATOR: That's why civil engineers don't just
work with companies like Ken's. You'll also
find them in municipal, state and federal
government settings, research facilities,
and universities. Ken holds a bachelor of
science and a master's of science degree
in civil engineering.
MASCHKE: Very rarely do I work on anything
by myself. But together, that helps us to
come up with the best solutions to the problems.
NARRATOR: In a sense, their job is to pave
the way for the future by incorporating
new materials, building techniques,
and new ways to save energy.
MASCHKE: This is a project that I worked on
with some architects, trying to envision a way
to use a currently undeveloped site in Chicago.
We think the idea that we're presenting, with
green technology, offers a way of the future, how
buildings in the future will need to be planned,
designed, in order to be more sustainable in
our infrastructure and in our cities.
NARRATOR: Green ideas like these are
changing the way buildings are being built
and renovated all over the world.
MASCHKE: I think there are so many other
difficult questions in today's day and age
dealing with the environmental impact of the
building, how to deal with the building's energy
needs. Engineers can be more involved with
all aspects of that.
Instead of just taking the skin that they give
us for granted, let's go back and try
to engineer a better way.
NARRATOR: Ken sees Chicago as a living city,
ever evolving and ever in need of improvements.
MASCHKE: There's always something new to
work on. It's a wonderful having that feeling
that all of your hard work has paid off
into something tangible.
NARRATOR: As he looks on into the future, Ken
can see there is no end to what he can learn and
what he can do to help cities like Chicago thrive.
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