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.

One of the most rewarding parts of working on the Atrium Club at 25 E Washington was that the project was happening inside the same building where our Forefront office is located. It gave me a unique opportunity to watch the work progress firsthand and, now that it is complete, to actually use a space that I helped create.

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.

Forefront Structural Engineers is proud to announce that 517 W Main Street has been awarded the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois (SEAOI) Excellence in Structural Engineering Award in the category of Best Project – Up to $10 Million.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the 9th & High Off Campus Student Housing project site in Columbus, Ohio, which will have twelve stories of mass timber supported on a one-story concrete podium making it the tallest mass timber student housing building in the U.S. And after spending months working through the design, it was great to see the building starting to take shape in real time. Being on site is always so rewarding because you see your hard work translated into

There are moments in a project when the work truly comes to life, and for us, the first indoor show at The Salt Shed was one of those moments. After months of design, coordination, and construction, seeing the space filled with people, music, and energy marked an important milestone for a project we were proud to be part of.