With an undergraduate civil engineering degree from the University of Cincinnati, James E. Carpenter served in the US Air Force as an Air Installation Officer at Eglin AFB in Florida, then spent two years with the consulting engineering firm Fay, Spofford, and Thorndike in Boston. He returned to studies at Purdue University, where he received the MSCE and a PhD in structural engineering.

Jim has had extensive experience in both structural design and research. During his 14 years as a researcher at the Portland Cement Association Structural Laboratories in Skokie, Illinois, Carpenter earned a national reputation for his work in concrete. His experimental studies helped lay the groundwork for the first micro concrete model of a prestressed free cantilever concrete bridge. This model helped introduce in the US the construction technique used for the design of many major bridge structures, including the West Seattle high level bridge.

Jim came to the Puget Sound area in 1975 to direct research for a division of Concrete Technology Corporation in Tacoma. This research emphasized the use of prestressed and precast concrete construction for tanks and bridge decks, as well as a federally funded research project on the use of very high strength concrete in highway bridges.

He worked for seven years with Andersen Bjornstad Kane and Jacobs Consulting Engineers in Seattle, and beginning in 1987 as an associate with Bruce Olsen, Consulting Engineer. His involvement in structural design of buildings and bridges including the West Seattle Bridge applied his research expertise in reinforced concrete and seismic capabilities of shear walls and slab column joints. He managed projects including the approaches for the West Seattle movable bridge and the structural portions of the 1989 widening of Interstate 405.

Jim joined SEAW in 1981 and became Chairman of the Lateral Forces Committee, where his involvement included the 1983 seminar on seismic design and publication of the "K Value" table. He also represented SEAW at meetings of the International Conference of Building Officials, the Structural Engineers Association of California, and the Building Seismic Safety Council. He led efforts to revise the 1988 UBC provision permitting the use of strong beam/weak column moment frames under potentially unsafe conditions, applying research sponsored by the SEAW and conducted at the University of Washington.

In addition to his SEAW activities, he chaired national committees of the American Concrete Institute and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Posted April 2012