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William BAST
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About William BAST
Mr. Bast is a Principal and Regional Director at SOCOTEC with over 39 years of structural engineering experience. His areas of expertise include structural engineering of buildings and other structures, forensic engineering, building envelope evaluation and repair, peer reviews, and expert witness testimony.
Prior to joining SOCOTEC, Bill was a Principal in the Chicago office of Thornton Tomasetti. His other work experience includes Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, his own firm William D. Bast & Associates, Rubinos& Mesia Engineers, SchalBovis(now Lendlease), and Central Building & Preservation. He is a Past President of the National Council of Structural Engineer Associations (NCSEA), a Past President of the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois (SEAOI), a former member of the AISC Committee on Specifications, a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and is a Certified Peer Reviewer for the City of Chicago.
Professional Experience
2 YEARS WITH FIRM | 35+ YEARS IN INDUSTRY
William BAST is a Principal & Regional Director at SOCOTEC and has held various other positions within the organization since 2020. Prior to his current position, Mr. BAST was a Principal & Regional Director at LPI, Inc. which was acquired by SOCOTEC in 2019.
Qualifications
Education
- M.S.C.E., Lehigh University - 1983
- B.S.C.E., Lehigh University - 1979
Practice Areas
- Fitness-For-Service
- Failure Analysis
- Engineering Design Consulting
- Root Cause Evaluations
- Litigation Support Services
- Expert Witness
Registrations
- Professional Engineer in: IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MO, OH, PA, WI, IA, AR, FL
- Structural Engineer in IL
Professional Affiliations
- National Council of Structural Engineers Associations (NCSEA)
- Structural Engineers Foundation
- Structural Engineers Association of Illinois (SEAOI)
- American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Certified Structural Peer Reviewer (City of Chicago)
Representative Projects
- Wrightwood 659, Chicago, IL. Adaptive re-use of a former 4-story apartment building to a 5-story private art gallery designed in conjunction with award winning architect TadaoAndo. Micropileand resistance pier foundations were used to fortify the existing load bearing masonry wall shell, while an interior steel frame was threaded between wood floors to brace the exterior walls and allow removal of the wood floors.
- James R. Thompson Center, Granite Cladding Investigation, Chicago, IL. Investigation of a three-story, granite-clad pedestrian arcade.
- 540 W. Madison, Chicago, IL. Structural design of an award-winning, 30-story office building.
- The Peninsula Hotel, 108 E. Superior Street, Chicago, IL. Structural design of a 17-story luxury hotel built atop an existing four-story retail building.
- School of the Art Institute of Chicago Residences and Gene SiskelFilm Center, Chicago, IL. Structural engineering of an award-winning 17-story renovation.
- Navy Pier Reconstruction Project, Chicago, IL.* Design of new building and parking structures between the headhouse and ballroom.
- Navy Pier Ferris Wheel Support, Chicago, IL. Design of the support structure for the new Ferris Wheel, including installation of micropilefoundations, concrete columns and walls, and a post-tensioned concrete mat.
- The Yard -Shakespeare Theatre at Navy Pier, Chicago IL. Design of a new theatre at the site of the former Skyline Stage and nestled underneath the existing tensile fabric structure. Structural steel catwalk and theatre shell structure with long span steel floor for movable seating towers.