MODERATOR
Rachelle Habchi, M.S., P.E.
Rachelle is a licensed civil engineer with 4 years of structural engineering experience in the Southern California area. She’s had the opportunity to work on a variety of structures, including K-12, higher education, multi-family residential, mixed used development and high-rise towers. Throughout her design experience, the use and implementation of sustainable materials has increasingly become an important aspect of consideration and one that she has readily embraced. Her work on 843 N Spring Street, one of the first mass timber buildings in Los Angeles and Park Habitat, a sustainability-focused concrete tower in San Jose have highlighted the importance of minimizing embodied carbon and the strategic role structural engineers play in realizing our collective net-zero objectives.
SPEAKERS
Luis Alberto Toranzo-Dianderas, Ph.D., S.E.
Dr. Luis Toranzo, a Principal with the Los Angeles Structural Division of KPFF, specializes in advanced structural analyses and performance based seismic design of structures. He has over 30 years of professional practice and seismic research experience. Dr. Toranzo has worked extensively on complex building projects, using alternative or new structural systems, advanced structural analysis tools, and structural material and component testing programs. He has conducted over a hundred seismic evaluations and retrofit designs of existing structures utilizing various methodologies such as ASCE 41, FEMA 356, HAZUS, and others, as well as client specific performance evaluations on institutional and commercial projects. Dr. Toranzo has lectured for seven years at UCLA, teaching performance based design at the graduate level.
Roberto Vazquez, AIA
Roberto Vazquez, joined Omgivning at its founding and focuses on adaptive reuse and major rehabilitation of existing buildings in downtown Los Angeles and throughout Southern California. He has successfully managed building types from small tenant improvements to high-rise adaptive reuse efforts. These projects include renovations and additions of museums, theaters, schools, residential, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs.
Roberto enjoys blending his creativity and design with strong technical skills. His experience with existing buildings and Los Angeles City, County, and California codes has made him one of the most knowledgeable resources at Omgivning. He possesses critical project management skills allowing him to work efficiently and effectively with both large complex project teams alongside smaller one to two-person teams. Roberto has a natural and open communication style which is invaluable during the design and creative process.
Russell A. McLellan, S.E.
Russell A. McLellan is a Consulting Engineer at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH). He has a diverse range of structural engineering experience involving new structural design, performance-based assessment, seismic analysis, forensic investigation, and construction engineering. Russell is very active in professional organizations. He has co-authored a dozen publications and is active in the ASCE 41 Tier 2 Subcommittee and the SEAOSC Existing Buildings Committee.
