Thirty years ago in Seattle, at the end of a talk to fellow structural engineers about lessons learned from recent earthquakes, Ronald O. Hamburger showed a photograph of a largely intact San Francisco after 1989’s magnitude-6.9 Loma Prieta quake. He followed with a photo of the utter devastation caused by 1988’s magnitude 6.8 Spitak quake in Armenia.
在Loma Prieta中，没有太多的建筑崩溃，只有63人死亡。在亚美尼亚，在加利福尼亚的地震设计规则后面的几年中，几乎到处都有倒塌，死亡25,000至50,000。
“The effect of modern construction and codes is evident from comparison of these two events,” Hamburger, currently chairman and senior principal of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, recalls telling his audience in 1990.
Then came the Hamburger bombshell. “My belief is that Seattle lies somewhere between these two examples in preparedness,” he said.
As he tells it, Hamburger was almost “mobbed” by a number of Seattle engineers, now mostly friends, who took great offense at his having insulted their engineering capabilities. “My remarks were made [only because] Washington permitted the use of unreinforced masonry well into the 1960s,” he explains. “California had banned URM in the 1930s. Anyway, those folks had no sense of humor,” he says dismissively.
Deadpan交付
The presentation was quintessential deadpan-delivery Hamburger—known to speak his mind, sometimes shock and occasionally ruffle feathers.
“他引起了所有人的注意，”总部位于西雅图的Magnusson Klemencic Associates地震工程总监John Hooper说，他的汉堡首次见到汉堡是在那段漫长的演讲中。Hooper说：“由于他独特的幽默感，他的举止一开始很难理解，但他的诚信超出了责备，并不荣幸地遭受愚蠢的痛苦。”
Since then, Hamburger has gotten and kept the attention—and respect—of Hooper and an admiring cadre of competing structural engineers, working together mostly pro bono on initiatives.
“罗恩（Ron）是许多工程师的极端例子，他们在工程协会，代码委员会和研发项目方面都在志愿者工作和/或领导力方面向该行业退还了该行业。”18luck官网应用技术委员会资助研究。
Hamburger has led or been involved with many significant projects that have “fundamentally shaped the future of engineering practice,” he adds. “We owe him a great debt of gratitude.”
Hamburger characteristically bellows with laughter at the suggestion that, to some, the subject of codes and standards is a big yawn. He asserts that code development, to which he has dedicated his life, “isn’t boring. We are seeking the truth to have a positive impact on society [by] trying to prescribe economic, safe and reliable structures.”
With more than 40 years of experience in design, construction, education, research, evaluation, investigation and the repair of commercial, institutional and industrial facilities, Hamburger, based in San Francisco, is an internationally recognized expert in performance-based structural, earthquake and blast engineering.
“Ron is a natural leader and a visionary,” says Susan Dowty, government relations manager for the International Code Council.
想要的海报
2001年9月11日，在纽约市发生恐怖袭击，汉堡曾代表美国土木工程师协会（美国土木工程师协会结构工程研究所）（毁灭世界贸易中心110层双塔楼）的首席调查员（ASCE/SEI）和联邦紧急事务管理局（FEMA）。为此，他获得了可疑的区别，即被9/11阴谋团体之一被列为危害人类犯罪的十个最想要的人之一。尽管从未受到威胁过，但他在互联网上遇到了他想要的海报，大约在2002年。“我认为这是一个针迹，”他说。
Hamburger is a past chair of the Structural Engineering Certification Board, a past president of the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations, a past president and fellow of the Structural Engineers Association of California and the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California, and a past director and vice president of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. Also, he is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Hamburger was an ENR Newsmaker twice. Both recognitions were related to 1994’s magnitude-6.7 Northridge quake, in California, which nearly dealt a death blow to steel moment-resisting frames by fracturing welded connections—and major design assumptions—in tall buildings.
Hamburger, then working for the now-defunct seismic consultant EQE International, helped clean up the analytical mess left by the fractured connections by distilling research, conducted by a large consortium of academics and consultants across the U.S., into a unified set of guidelines.
“Ron was tireless, making sure the documents reflected our learning and were consistent,” says James Malley, a senior principal with Degenkolb Engineers, who led the research for the multi-year project.
北山之后，更改建筑物代码以需要建筑物中每个不同的钢矩连接的测试（可能很昂贵且耗时）。作为回应，汉堡领导了建立预先合格的地震联系的努力。
Hamburger is proud of the post-Northridge work. But he says his most important, and favorite, project involved the development of documents that led to performance-based seismic design standards. “I played a pivotal role in that landmark project,” he says.
Change Agent
Engineers call him a change agent. The steel connection project changed the way structures are designed, detailed, fabricated, erected and inspected, says Duane Miller, manager, engineering services, at Lincoln Electric Co. And Hamburger’s “forward thinking on performance-based design was pioneering,” Miller adds.
汉堡（Hamburger）以幽默感将硬性概念归结为简单的想法。一个例子是他对乔酒吧的循环素描，显示了地震中四个不同的设计水平。
对于设计师来说，使事情变得不那么复杂的是他作为委员会主席的目标，更新ASCE/SEI的最低设计负载以及建筑物和其他结构的相关标准：ASCE 7-22。目的是从用户的角度简化标准，同时确保其仍然是最新的。他的目标与ASCE 7-16更新的主席相同。
Jim Rossberg, ASCE’s managing director for engineering programs, is impressed with Hamburger’s vast design experience. “He is reasonable and open to discussion, though once he gets locked into a position it is hard to move him,” says Rossberg. Bob Bachman, principal of Robert E. Bachman Consulting Engineer, agrees, adding, on committee work, “when you are butting heads with Ron, you had better be prepared.”
Retired SGH chairman and CEO Glenn R. Bell, who hired Hamburger in 2002, recommended him as his successor as chairman. “Ron is a consensus builder without being a politician,” says Bell.
Hamburger has been chairman for a year, in addition to his other duties. He works 70 to 80 hours a week to keep up with his many projects. Of a normal 40 hour week, 70% of his time is billable and 30% is charged to overhead, including committee work.
Mr. Fix-It
An apt moniker for Hamburger is Mr. Fix-it. Much of his repair work has been difficult, but the list-topper is the scheme to fix the 645-ft-tall sinking Millennium Tower in San Francisco.
“Probably in terms of pure size, the level of review and the complexity of the analyses we did, this would have to be my most challenging project,” says Hamburger. The expected 22 months of remedial work by the Shimmick division of AECOM won’t begin until the involved parties agree on the final terms for payment, he says.
Most other tricky repair schemes are related to quake damage. One project involved Guam Hilton’s seven-story wing, badly damaged in a 1993 quake near Guam in Micronesia. Hamburger saved the wing, despite another engineer’s assessment it had to be razed.
Hamburger also saved the now-shuttered Broadway store at Topanga Plaza Mall, in Canoga Park—a three-story, reinforced masonry structure, with precast concrete floors, damaged in the Northridge quake. Four concrete columns partially failed in the central escalator core, allowing the middle of the second floor to drop about 2 ft. “I jacked the floor back into position, installed new columns and repaired other damage,” says Hamburger.
The Emporium Capwell store in San Francisco, housed in a historic seven-story unreinforced masonry building, experienced extensive damage, including a partial interior collapse, during the Oct. 17, 1989, Loma Prieta quake. “We worked 24 hours a day, with a contractor, to get the building back in service by Thanksgiving,” in time for Christmas sales, says Hamburger.
Loma Prieta also seriously damaged the two 15-story Pacific Bell buildings in Oakland, Calif., which housed the main interchange, including Bay Area long distance service, between Pac Bell and AT&T. Over a weekend, Hamburger designed shoring for the buildings and got them back in service. Then over two years, he designed a repair and seismic upgrade. Work had to be done while the buildings remained in service, “which was quite challenging,” says Hamburger.
飞行员，猎人，渔夫，马术运动员
不知何故，除了他所有的专业职责和委员会工作外，汉堡还找到了时间成为飞行员，猎人，渔夫，马术运动员，钢琴家和空手道爱好者。有时，与商业旅行相比，他节省了时间并为他提供更多的时间表，因为它节省了时间，并为他提供了更多的控制。他说：“我只是启动引擎然后走。”“费用通常对经济票价有竞争力，我可以在工作时做一些我喜欢的事情。”
但是飞行并不总是很有趣。汉堡回忆起10年前的一场夜间航班，当时他与已故的妻子黛博拉（Deborah）从海湾地区飞往俄勒冈州塞勒姆（Salem）拜访了他们的女儿。准备着陆后，他将无线电频率切换到当地的空中交通管制塔，并完全电力故障，这使他无法在空中田地抬起灯。汉堡说：“幸运的是，其他人正在登陆并点亮跑道。”他安全地着陆，但回想起这一事件是他一生中最痛苦的五分钟。
现年67岁的汉堡（Hamburger）期待更多的时间追求他的飞行，无论风险多，他的其他利益。他说：“我实际上希望2020将是我的最后一年全职工作。”
Confident that as he winds down, others will pick up the pro bono code and standards work, he adds, “I think the engineering profession will be just fine.”
