Commercial structural engineer for Fort Worth and Dallas
Structural engineer of record for retail, office, restaurant, and medical buildings in Fort Worth, Dallas, and the suburbs between them: new construction, shell and core, and tenant improvements. Permit-ready drawings coordinated with your architect from the first schematic, with Glacier Point accountable from kickoff through construction.
- Who we work with
- GCs · Architects · Developers · Owners
- Deliverable
- Stamped structural CDs and calcs
- Systems
- Steel · Concrete · Masonry · Wood
- Service area
- DFW metro
What this covers
What commercial structural engineering covers
Commercial structural design is coordination as much as calculation. The frame has to serve the architecture, the MEP routing, the site, and the schedule, and the drawings have to clear plan review on the first pass.
New buildings
Steel, concrete, masonry, and wood-framed buildings for retail, office, restaurant, and medical use: gravity and lateral systems, foundations designed to the geotechnical report, and a full set of construction documents.
Tenant improvements
New openings in bearing and shear walls, rooftop unit supports, mezzanines, storefront and canopy framing, and the structural letters a landlord or building department wants before a TI permit is issued.
Medical and dental buildings
Equipment loads, vibration-sensitive floors, supports for lead-lined rooms, and the close MEP coordination clinics demand, delivered on the compressed schedules medical build-outs run on.
Additions and renovations
Evaluation of existing structures for new loads, expansion joints and tie-ins, and reuse of existing foundations where the numbers allow it.
Foundations on expansive soil
Drilled piers, grade beams, structural slabs, and moisture-conditioned pads selected from the site's soil report rather than by habit. In this region the clay decides more about a commercial foundation than the superstructure does.
Construction administration
Shop drawing and submittal review, RFI responses, site observation at structural milestones, and the letters required for a certificate of occupancy.
Typical projects
Typical commercial projects
A representative slice of what a commercial engineer of record handles in the metro. The process holds across all of them.
- 01Single-story retail shell buildings and strip centers
- 02Restaurant build-outs with new openings, hoods, and rooftop equipment
- 03Medical and dental office buildings and clinic tenant improvements
- 04Two- and three-story steel-framed office buildings
- 05Auto service, car wash, and drive-through structures and canopies
- 06Storefront, canopy, and signage support framing
- 07Structural evaluations for change of occupancy or added load
- 08Pre-engineered metal building foundations and hardwall additions
Our approach
How we run a commercial project
Glacier Point carries the project from the first schematic to the last RFI, so the reasoning behind each decision is still in the room when someone questions it.
- 01
Schematic coordination
Structural system options weighed against the architecture and the site: bay sizes, floor depths, lateral system, foundation type. Decisions made here save more than any later optimization can.
- 02
Design development
Member sizing, lateral analysis, foundation design to the geotechnical report, and coordination of openings, penetrations, and equipment with the architect and the MEP engineers.
- 03
Construction documents
Plans, sections, details, schedules, general notes, and calculations, organized for plan review and sealed by a licensed P.E. Comments from the city come back to Glacier Point, not a third party.
- 04
Construction
Submittals, RFIs, and site visits at foundation, framing, and connection milestones. Field changes get engineered, documented, and closed out ahead of the certificate of occupancy.
Codes and standards
Codes and standards for commercial buildings
Commercial buildings in Texas follow the International Building Code as each city adopts and amends it, with loads from ASCE 7 and materials designed to the standards below.
Plan review and special-inspection requirements differ from one building department to the next. Pages for the cities we work in most:
- IBC (ICC)
- International Building Code: occupancy, structural design requirements, foundations, and special inspections.
- ASCE 7
- Minimum design loads: dead, live, wind, seismic, rain, and load combinations.
- AISC 360 and 341
- Structural steel buildings and seismic provisions; connection design and steel deck coordination.
- ACI 318
- Structural concrete: foundations, slabs, tilt-wall panels, and grade beams.
- TMS 402/602
- Masonry bearing and shear walls, lintels, and veneer anchorage.
- AWC NDS
- Wood-framed commercial buildings and roof framing.
Questions
Questions from GCs, architects, and owners
What does a structural engineer of record do?
The engineer of record designs the building's structural system, signs and stamps the drawings and calculations, responds to plan review comments, reviews shop drawings and submittals, and answers field questions during construction. Legally and practically, that is the party responsible for the structure standing up. At Glacier Point, the engineer of record is a licensed P.E. who stays on the project from kickoff through closeout.
What is included in structural construction documents?
Foundation and framing plans, sections and details, schedules for footings, columns, beams, and connections, general structural notes stating the codes, loads, and materials, a special-inspection schedule where the code requires one, and calculations for the plan reviewer. We coordinate the structural set against the architectural and MEP drawings before it goes out for permit.
How long does structural design take for a commercial tenant improvement?
It depends on how much structure the TI touches. A rooftop unit support or a single new opening is a short effort. A mezzanine, a change of occupancy, or a storefront reframe takes longer, because the existing structure has to be evaluated before anything new is designed. The proposal states a schedule, and we coordinate it with the architect's permit submittal date.
Do you work directly with the architect?
Yes. Most commercial projects reach us through the architect or the general contractor, and structural coordination runs directly with the design team through shared models and drawings. Owners and developers are welcome to engage us directly as well.
Can an existing building take a new load or a new use?
Often, but it has to be checked. A change of occupancy, added rooftop equipment, a mezzanine, or heavier storage changes the loads the original design assumed. We evaluate the existing structure from drawings and field observation, then either confirm the capacity or design the reinforcement.
Related services
Related services
- 03
Industrial
When the portfolio includes a warehouse or a plant: mezzanines, equipment foundations, and slab checks for racking.
View service → - 05
Multifamily
Mixed-use projects where retail sits under apartments and the podium has to serve both.
View service → - 06
Retaining Walls & Global Stability
Site walls at parking lots and loading docks, designed with the grading plan rather than after it.
View service →
Start a project
Starting a commercial project or a tenant build-out?
Send the architectural set, the site plan, or the landlord's requirements, and we will come back with a scope and a schedule you can hand to the owner.
This page is general information about structural engineering practice and is not engineering advice for a specific site or project. Glacier Point provides sealed engineering only under a signed engagement agreement.