Tom Schwartz rev

Thomas A. Schwartz, P.E.

Senior Principal, President and Head of Building Technology Group, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, New York, NY

Presentation: Performance of Curtain Walls and Glazing Systems
Today's sophisticated integration of structure and envelope evolved over 60 years of progressively more advanced use of glass/metal curtain wall systems in architecture. This progress has not been without significant missteps and hard lessons learned. What has worked, what hasn't, and what needs to be done to assure continuing improvement in the reliability and durability of contemporary curtain wall/ glazing systems will be explored by a leading practitioner.

Brief Bio
Thomas A. Schwartz, P.E., is the president of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc., an internationally known consulting engineering firm focusing on design, investigation, and rehabilitation of buildings and infrastructure. Mr. Schwartz is head of its Building Technology Group. For over 35 years, Mr. Schwartz has conducted field and laboratory investigations, and produced new and remedial designs for building envelope systems, including curtain walls, glazing, roofing, waterproofing, and masonry. He has worked on many notable projects including determining the cause of breakage of the insulating glass at the John Hancock Tower in Boston, MA, investigating the cause of limestone curtain wall deterioration at the Metro-Dade Government Center in Miami, FL, and designing the post-earthquake glass curtain wall recladding at Warner Bros. Glass Building in Burbank, CA.

He is active in international standards development and research on various topics related to the construction industry and is a fellow of ASTM International. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of ASTM and chairs its Subcommittee on “Performance of Exterior Building Wall Systems.” He is also a member of the American Arbitration Association (Construction Industry Arbitrator), and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Mr. Schwartz regularly lectures and writes on building technology topics. He has been a featured speaker in the national lecture series, “The Building Envelope: Solutions to Problems” sponsored by SGH. He was a technical editor for Glass Digest for more than a decade. He received the Engineering News-Record Award for Contribution to Engineering and ASTM’s Award of Merit for his contribution to standards development.

Mr. Schwartz is a registered engineer in 18 states and the District of Columbia. He received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Tufts University and his Master of Science in Materials Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.