2023 Annual Conference

Paul Laudenschlager

Alpen Engineering, Principal

Paul Laudenschlager, P.E., has been engineering timber frame structures for over 25 years after an architect brought him a timber frame project in 1997 to re-engineer. He managed to make it work without the two ridiculous steel moment frames the previous engineer thought were necessary. Paul is the owner of Alpen Engineering, Inc. a civil and structural engineering firm in Truckee, California. In his local area, the Tahoe Sierra, he regularly engineers projects with high snow loads, sometimes in excess of 400 lb. per square foot. (Just imagine a house with 14 ft. or 500,000 lb. of snow on the roof.) He also engineers timber frame structures in areas with very high seismic loads as are typical in many areas of California. He's been fortunate to have successfully navigated through many exacting building departments to get innovative designs permitted, including timber braced frames, straw-bale timber frames, and long-span timber frame trusses without metal connectors. Paul is an advocate of having engineers take the responsibility to promote sustainable building in the design of structural frames and enclosure systems. In the summer, when not working, you can find him paddling and racing with his outrigger canoe club, and in the winter, cross country and alpine ski racing and coaching. Paul is a registered Civil Engineer in California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

www.alpenengineering.com

Presentation

TFEC Symposium: Engineering for Heavy Snow Loads
This presentation will explore heavy snow situations to understand the immense depth of snow loads involved. It will look at various types of snow damage failures and review their causes. Finally, it will introduce and discuss engineering design considerations and design procedures for structures in heavy snow areas.