Bill Bast Principal LPI Inc a SOCOTEC Company

William BAST

Principal, Regional Director - Midwest
Chicago, IL

Contact

William BAST

Professional Licenses

Professional Engineer (PE) Structural Engineering Certification Board (SECB)

Expertise

Commercial Cultural & Entertainment Education Government Healthcare Hospitality Industrial & Manufacturing Mixed Use Residential Transportation Architectural Engineering Design Defects Construction Defects Damages Quantification Expert Witness Testimony Forensic Engineering Litigation Support Concrete Panels Construction/Project Management Masonry Metal Panel Owner's Rep Stucco Troubled Project Turnaround Unitized / Pre-Fabricated Building Assemblies Structural Engineering Construction Materials Testing Site Monitoring Stress Analysis Structural Engineering Hurricane / Wind / Tornado Insurance Claims Due to Disasters
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Services

Expert Witness/Diligence Façade Refurbishment Failure Investigations Forensics Local Facade Inspection Ordinances (FISP) Masonry Restoration Site Monitoring Building Code / Plan Review & Interpretations Building Violations Alternative Dispute Resolution Expert Witness Testimony Litigation Support Accident Investigation (Crane Collapses, Explosions, etc) Advanced Computing & Models Advanced Engineering Analysis Engineering Design Consulting Failure Analysis Fitness for Service Evaluations Materials Analysis & Testing Root Cause Evalutation Structural Analysis
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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.

Professional Licenses

Professional Engineer (PE) Structural Engineering Certification Board (SECB)

Expertise

Commercial Cultural & Entertainment Education Government Healthcare Hospitality Industrial & Manufacturing Mixed Use Residential Transportation Architectural Engineering Design Defects Construction Defects Damages Quantification Expert Witness Testimony Forensic Engineering Litigation Support Concrete Panels Construction/Project Management Masonry Metal Panel Owner's Rep Stucco Troubled Project Turnaround Unitized / Pre-Fabricated Building Assemblies Structural Engineering Construction Materials Testing Site Monitoring Stress Analysis Structural Engineering Hurricane / Wind / Tornado Insurance Claims Due to Disasters
+ See more

Services

Expert Witness/Diligence Façade Refurbishment Failure Investigations Forensics Local Facade Inspection Ordinances (FISP) Masonry Restoration Site Monitoring Building Code / Plan Review & Interpretations Building Violations Alternative Dispute Resolution Expert Witness Testimony Litigation Support Accident Investigation (Crane Collapses, Explosions, etc) Advanced Computing & Models Advanced Engineering Analysis Engineering Design Consulting Failure Analysis Fitness for Service Evaluations Materials Analysis & Testing Root Cause Evalutation Structural Analysis
+ See more