On December 7, over a hundred engineers, architects, and construction professionals and students worked in teams to build 14 incredible replicas of iconic structures – from Santa Monica Pier to Snoopy’s Dog House – that are now on display at Discovery Cube Orange County. The third annual SoCal Gingerbread Challenge was one to remember, as visitors to the Discovery Cube watched on in awe as the teams built their masterpieces entirely out of gingerbread, candy, and frosting for five hours.

Each structure was handcrafted with care and everything was made on site, including each carved pumpkin gingerly placed upon the Haunted Holiday Mansion and each icicle hanging from the eaves of the Geisel Library.

The teams came into the day with carefully drawn blueprints and a plan laid out for the five hours of construction as visitors, including some friends and family, came out to show their support.

“It was unlikely we were going to win in any of the aesthetic categories,” one of the Team Burj Frostifa (University of Southern California) members said, “So we went for height.” Standing at nearly seven feet tall, the replica of the Burj Khalifa won for “Tallest Structure.”

For others, the design played a bigger part. The Hayao P Moorizaki team from Walter P Moore—one of four teams bringing an animated film to life—built the bath house from “Spirited Away,” saying that “[We] really wanted to get it right, [we] were worried that nobody would know what it was.” 

Team Hilti North America brought the holiday cheer as they traded construction hard hats for sparkly Christmas tree hats and Team Cal Poly Pomona donned reindeer antlers. 

Cal Poly Pomona won the “Team Spirit Award” for a lofty rendition of Rapunzel’s Tower from the “Tangled” movie. “We cooked,” they celebrated as they put on the final touches to the tower: a strand of long blonde hair from a wig meant to resemble Rapunzel’s braid.

The final structures are on display at the Discovery Cube OC until January 5, and a People’s Choice category is now open for visitors to vote for their favorites.

The 2024 Gingerbread Challenge winners are:

• Best Decorated: Coco's Marigold Bridge by Team Un Poco Loco of ICC-ES

• Best In Show: The Geisel Library by the Team the Grouchy Grinch Gang of Brandow & Johnston & NAC

• Best Replica Building: Haunted Mansion Holiday by Hohbach-Lewin & HMC Architects

• Most Creative Original Design: "Only In SoCal" by Team Hilti North America

• President’s Award: Deetz/Maitland Residence Team MiTek/SidePlate

• Tallest Structure: Burj Khalifa by Team Burj Frostifa, USC EERI-SEAOSC sponsored by AISC

• Team Spirit Award: Rapunzel's Tower by Team Cal Poly Pomona sponsored by Concrete West Construction

We can’t wait to bring this back next year with even more amazing feats of engineering and gingerbread magic! View all event photos here.

Dear Members,

I still remember my first professional career fair. As a second year student in Cal Poly-SLO's Architectural Engineering program, my classmates and I dressed up in our professional attire (me in a coat and tie) and carpooled to the Embassy Suites. We were just figuring out what structural engineering was all about in our academic program and this career fair gave us an invaluable opportunity to meet top engineers at the top firms in Southern and Northern California that were looking for new talent. I did not land a job at one of those firms that summer (I stayed more local to my parent's house and interned at a very small engineering firm instead), but several of those company representatives made a lasting impression on me and opened my eyes to the structural engineering profession.

Over the many years since then, I have met many, many students that have made a lasting impression on me from the other side of the table. I leave every career fair impressed by the potential new talent and anxious to get interviews scheduled before these impressive students get snatched up!

As we enter another hiring season, our SEAOSC board is excited to once again provide THE premier in-person job fair for structural engineering students in Southern California. On February 12th, SEAOSC will host its in-person career fair since 2020, which will be the pre-event to our annual Emerging Engineer's and Foundation Scholarship program later that same evening. Nowhere else, will students from Southern California's top engineering schools be all in one place. Registration for firms will be open soon (space will be limited) and students will want to get this date on their calendars for this invaluable opportunity to network with these top engineers at the top firms in Southern California. You can be assured that this career fair will leave a lasting impression on you and you will not want to miss out.

Garrett W. Mills, S.E.
SEAOSC President 2024-25

Under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), many small business owners in the United States are required to file beneficial ownership information reports (BOIR) by January 1, 2025. Failure to submit the new paperwork by the deadline puts small business owners at risk of criminal penalties, imprisonment, and fines up to $10,000.

The CTA was enacted in 2021 to help prevent and combat money laundering, terrorist financing, corruption, and tax fraud. Under the CTA, which went into effect on January 1 of this year, businesses must provide their legal name and trademarks, as well as their current U.S. address. They’ll also need to provide a taxpayer identification number and specify the jurisdiction where they were formed or registered.

All businesses that fall under the definition of a reporting company must file a BOIR by January 1, 2025. Reporting companies are those that fall under the following requirements:

• Are for-profit, privately held companies registered to conduct business in the U.S.
• Have 20 or fewer employees or have $5 million or less in gross sales or receipts.

Most applicable businesses must file by January 1, 2025, with two exceptions.

• New companies created between Jan. 1, 2024 and Jan. 1, 2025 need to file within 90 days of formation.
• Companies formed after Jan. 1, 2025 will need to file within 30 days of formation.

There are 23 exemptions for small businesses that will not have to file a BOIR. Find out if your business is exempt here. Publicly traded companies and non-profits do not fall under the CTA, as they are subject to their own reporting requirements.

If this act applies to you, file your report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) here. There are organizations challenging the legitimacy of this act in court, but until a verdict is reached, the deadline applies.

For more information, view the Small Business Administration’s guide for complying with the CTA or their blog post on what every small business should know about the CTA. 

Dear Members,

We often use this line as an icebreaker at SEAOSC leadership meetings, "What was your introduction to SEAOSC - why did you first join?" For me, the answer is technical expertise. As an emerging engineer working for a small design firm, I found SEAOSC to be the place where I could find the technical knowledge that was "of the moment" and that I could not get anywhere else. I would drive down from San Luis Obispo early on a Saturday morning to attend a full-day technical seminar at the Long Beach Grand Event Center. I would often run into fellow alumni from my college program, meet welcoming and experienced engineers (including the speakers), and listen to some old-timers question the state of structural engineering. I would leave with a head full of new knowledge, new networking relationships, and a sense of my own expertise enhanced with the day of learning.

In that sense, SEAOSC has maintained its technical excellence over the years. We are still providing the excellent training of our current and emerging professionals, leaving attendees with heads full of knowledge and expertise, and still being a welcoming place for networking with the leaders in our field. We held our first technical dinner meeting in many years last month, and we will round out the year with two more opportunities for highly technical presentations. I hope you will join us at the Orange County breakfast on November 13th and at the half-day Winter Technical Program on December 11th on the campus of Cal State LA. Both events will leave you filled with knowledge, enhanced in your expertise, networked with new professional connections, and inspired by your day of learning.

Garrett W. Mills, S.E.
SEAOSC President 2024-25

Dear Members,

Fall is fully here! This is my favorite season of the year as for me it brings a big reset to regularity in my life. School started back up and my home schedule is in the regular rhythms and routines of my kids' school and after school activities. The work week finds my coworkers and me more regularly in the office. Weekends are spent mostly at home working on the house and following football (and fantasy football) instead of traveling.

Fall is also the kickoff of so many of our SEAOSC activities. Committees are reshaped and reformed with new members, with new charges and goals, and with attending our annual Committee Showcase event just last week. Our student groups start their academic year with new officers, new members added to our roles, and with new opportunities for SEAOSC to stay connected with our campuses. This year, fall brings back the fondly remembered in-person dinner meetings that we hosted regularly pre-pandemic. That's right - dinner meetings ARE BACK and you really should sign up right now for October 9th in downtown LA.

As you settle into the regular rhythms and routines of this fall season, I hope to see you connecting with SEAOSC regularly and routinely!

Garrett W. Mills, S.E.

SEAOSC President 2024-25

Recent increases in seismic activity in Southern California remind us all of the importance of earthquake readiness and preparation. As professionals dedicated to safeguarding our communities, it’s crucial for structural engineers to be prepared to respond to our families and communities in the next large event. Here are some key steps to ensure we’re ready to respond:

• Get certified: Consider enrolling as a Cal OES SAP evaluator or renewing your status if expired. Ensure you have obtained your digital SAP ID via the VEOCI program. SEAOSC will be hosting a SAP evaluator training in October.
• Educate clients: Remind your clients about the vulnerable building types they may own or work on. Offer informational resources on retrofit opportunities and ordinance measures, such as our SEAOSC Safety Fact Sheet and SEAOC Seismically Vulnerable Building Fact Sheet.
• Review emergency plans: Review and re-familiarize yourself with your firm’s emergency response plan. If your firm does not have an emergency response plan, now is the time to put one together.
• Promote preparedness: Join the upcoming Great ShakeOut earthquake drills on Oct 17 and encourage your network to participate.
• Engage with SEAOSC: SEAOSC has a variety of committees that offer further opportunities to get involved and support your community. View the list and how to join at seaosc.org/Committees. Not sure which is best for your interest, email us, and we’ll find the right one: seaosc@seaosc.org
• Sign up for alerts: Sign up for an Earthquake Early Warning alert system, provided through various sources. Here is one resource that is being used by some of our members: myshake.berkeley.edu

Let’s stay vigilant and prepared to protect our families and communities.

Dear Members,

This week, our members head to Portland to attend the annual SEAOC Convention; the place for networking, development, and technical knowledge opportunities all condensed into a few days. I think back to the very first convention I attended back in 2010 in Indian Wells, which I attended from a generous younger member grant provided by Nabih Youssef. I left that week amazed at having connected with many other structural engineers from around the state - firm leaders, mid-career engineers, and young members alike - I had found my people in the conversations I had that week. I was also impressed by the technical seminars and the access I had to learn about current studies within the forefront of structural engineering. This week, SEAOC continues to carry the charge to provide grants to young engineers in our profession through the Pathways program and now I get to be a Pathways Partner and see the development of our younger members from that lens. If you are attending this week’s convention, I look forward to connecting with you in person.

Convention, however, is not the only place to have these networking and technical knowledge experiences and we at SEAOSC are working to provide several such opportunities this year. Two upcoming events are worthy of a special note this month. September 25th will be our Committee Showcase event where you can connect with committee chairs and hear their pitch for the work they plan on doing this year. And October 9th brings an in-person dinner meeting where we will hear about the changes in ASCE-22 to geotechnical provisions that will affect our structural design. Both of these events are opportunities to connect with other engineers - to find your people - and I hope to see you there.

Garrett W. Mills, S.E.
SEAOSC President 2024-25

For several years now, SEAOSC has been working on our public messaging following hazard events – an effort that has been picked up by our state partners at SEAOC and our national partners at NCSEA for larger events – but that remains local for smaller events. Yesterday’s 4.4 magnitude earthquake falls below the threshold for triggering our messaging, however, the epicenter being very close to downtown Los Angeles deserved a response. Many of us members and certainly many Angelenos felt the shaking and we thought about how our buildings responded and how they would respond in a much bigger earthquake. SEAOSC issued a statement to local media outlets directing the public to contact their local structural engineer for building evaluations and damage assessments using the Find an Engineer page on our website and directing the media to contact one of our named media relations members for interviews. If you as a member find yourself receiving inquiries from the media for a response from a structural engineer, we would encourage you to send them our way by contacting mediarelations@seaosc.org.

Dear Members,

The new SEAOSC year is now officially in full swing.

This past week launched our new SEAOSC year with two big events. The first was a kickoff retreat with our new Board of Directors and committee chairs - where a room full of our dedicated volunteer leaders spent the day celebrating the work that we have done together the past several years and exchanging ideas about the work ahead of us. The second was our golf tournament on August 5th - the first member event of the new SEAOSC year. Both events were a tremendous success.

SEAOSC’s committees remain the most vital part of the association. As we look forward to the restart of the academic school year, we also restart our committee goals and rosters for the year.

Just like the member that played their first round of golf at the SEAOSC tournament, we as association leaders want to help break down the intimidation barrier that may prevent someone from joining a committee. To that end, committee meetings are open to anyone to attend as an observer and I encourage you to consider which committee would be of particular interest to you. I personally was much further in my career and involvement at SEAOSC before I realized that I could enrich my experience by taking part in committee work. Even as a young engineer, I had plenty to add and I would have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from just being in the room. I hope you will take a moment and review https://seaosc.org/Committee-Pages and find the committee that most interests you - you definitely belong and have plenty to add!

Garrett W. Mills, S.E.
SEAOSC President 2024-25

Dear Members,

It is the 30th anniversary of the Northridge earthquake and 2025 will bring the 100 year anniversary of the Santa Barbara earthquake. These anniversaries give us unique opportunities to promote structural engineering in our communities.

Our safer cities initiatives are up and running. This year we will continue the work of advocating for sensible legislation with our policy-making partners. We expect to partner with two or three more cities this year that will be enacting retrofit ordinances.

We also look to bolster our relationships with our partners in academia, both faculty and students, as we in Southern California drive research that has local, state, national, and global impacts.

We have a full calendar of events through the rest of the year, and you can mark your calendars now for the 2nd Wednesday of each month to attend a SEAOSC event.

Our regular slate of events over the course of the year includes the Golf Tournament, the SEAOC convention in Portland, our Committee Showcase, Gingerbread Challenge, Trivia Night, Emerging Engineers Night, SEE Awards, and June Technical Summit.

The upcoming year also brings back the in-person Career Fair, the Leadership Symposium, in-person dinners and a winter technical day.   In addition, Structured Connections events throughout the year are being reimagined as partnership events with industry partners like AIA and ICC as we continue to strengthen those relationships.

I am grateful for your involvement in the Association, in your committee work, in attending and planning events, in being mentors and advocates for our emerging professionals, and in promoting and elevating the profile of our distinguished profession. You are truly inspiring, and I look forward to serving you as your President.

Garrett W. Mills, S.E.
SEAOSC President 2024-25