This week, architects, engineers, designers, technologists, and builders will come together for Chicago Innovate 2026, a four day event exploring how new technologies, materials, and ways of working are reshaping the AEC industry. Forefront Founding Partner Josh Dortzbach will join the symposium on September 25 as a panelist for the Advanced Materials + Construction discussion. His presentation, From Digital to Physical: Engineering a New Way to Build, explores an idea that h

Columbus’s first mass timber building and, at 13 stories, the tallest mass timber student housing structure in the U.S., has topped out, a construction milestone.

Forefront Principal Josh Dortzbach recently joined Informed Infrastructure for a conversation about 9th & High, the mass timber student housing project currently rising near The Ohio State University in Columbus. Read the full article on their website. The conversation became the basis for the magazine’s feature, It’s Tall, But That’s Not All: A Consequential 158 Feet of Mass Timber in Columbus, Ohio, which looks at what makes the project significant beyond its height.

At Forefront Structural Engineers, many members of our team bring experience from more than one discipline. That overlap has become one of the most valuable parts of how we approach projects and collaborate with design teams. While structural engineering remains our focus, perspectives shaped by architecture, construction, fabrication, and design studios influence the way we think about buildings, communication, and problem solving.