A History of Engineering Innovation

For over 60 years, RJC has stayed ahead of the pack. Our people are visionary. Our work sets new standards.

Cast-in-place Concrete Flat Plate Construction

After World War II, the restricted availability and high cost of timber and steel placed a great burden on construction. RJC founder John Read introduced cast-in-place concrete flat plate construction, which greatly reduced both cost and construction schedules.

Post-tensioned Structural Design

Per Christoffersen designed British Columbia's first post-tensioned structure in 1958. It was a comfort station at Main and Hastings in Vancouver. Less than ten years later, in 1966, the firm was responsible for the first post-tensioned high-rise office tower in Calgary, Alberta. Working closely with suppliers and general contractors, RJC has led the way in implementing the quality control standards that allow the flexibility and economy of post-tensioning systems to be used with confidence.

Developed the "Mat System"

In 1964, Per Christoffersen and Nils Adler developed the now-familiar "mat system" for laying out reinforcing steel in concrete slabs. The system allows the steel to be placed where it is most effective and allows the contractor to prefab the slab reinforcing offsite. This system has been widely adopted by developers across Canada because it speeds construction and reduces costs. The success of this approach is evidenced by the fact it has become the industry standard and is now part of the Canadian Concrete Design Code.

Structural Engineering Leads to the Tallest Concrete Building

In 1970, RJC engineers designed 200 Granville Square, which, at that time, was the tallest reinforced concrete building in Canada designed and detailed to resist earthquake motions in a ductile manner. RJC's understanding of construction techniques and constraints such as this made us the engineer of choice for many demanding buildings. Our ability to produce structural design that facilitates construction is another factor that led to RJC's growth.

Parking Planning

Ted Seeberg, RJC’s parking visionary, introduced the modern parking garage design to Canada in the early 1970's. 

Under Ted's leadership, RJC was awarded the Stelco Award for the Victoriaville Garage in Thunder Bay and the IMPC Award for Excellence for the St. Lawrence Esplanade Garage in Toronto and the McDougall Parkade in Calgary, respectively.

With Ted at the helm, RJC took the lead in designing efficient and aesthetically pleasing parking structures, and in restoring parkades that had deteriorated from large volumes of deicing road salt, or insufficient maintenence. 

Parking planning projects continue to be a major focus in every RJC office across Canada. 

Structural Restoration

In the early 1980’s Ted Stone in our Edmonton office recognized the opportunities in restoration of parking structures. Since that time the Structural Restoration practice has grown across Canada and is a major focus and service provided in each of our six offices.

Building Science Grows

During the 1980's, North America began to recognize heritage buildings as culturally viable additions to the urban fabric. We quickly became experts in efficient and cost-effective restoration and renovation of historic buildings across Canada.

When RJC recognized the need to serve building owner clients in a wider spectrum of their repair and maintenance needs, Nick Trovato and Doug Clark were charged with expanding the firm's Building Science practice Canada-wide. So in the 1990's, growing together with our Restoration division, RJC focused on solving the problems posed by building cladding and roofing - in other words, the building envelope.

RJC Today

RJC now has over 100 LEED®Accredited Professional employees working on LEED and sustainable structural designs. Impressively, 1% of all LEED professionals in Canada work at RJC and each one focuses on cost-effective, environmental solutions that increase the functionality of long-lasting, healthy and livable buildings.

We designed and now utilize an innovative new seismic bracing system for buildings - Buckling Inhibited Braces. These braces are more effective and economical than conventional bracing system designs. Cost savings come from material savings, which also meet our sustainable design goals. Buckling Inhibited Braces are flat steel plates fitted inside a stiff tube to ensure that no buckling occurs during seismic activity. Unlike “conventional” braces, this innovative system demonstrates very desirable earthquake qualities and predictable behaviour, when under tension and compression loads.

Our innovative design team threw a curve into designing bridges. Our concept for the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation’s (CMLC) Design Competition for St. Patrick’s Bridge reflects the curves of the Bow River. The horizontal curve of the suspension cables' tension forces counterbalance the compression arch formed by the bridge deck. RJC engineered a curved deck alignment that works in harmony with the structural action, and designed it with hanger cables on only one side allowing for unobstructed and varying views from the crossing.

RJC worked with EcoSmart™ on a number of research case study projects where ‘green’ concrete was used (the use of supplementary cementing materials SCM’s to reduce the cement in concrete). Projects include: Technology Enterprises Facility III, UBC; Courtyard on Bear, Banff; and the Vento, Calgary and GOCB, Charlottetown. This work led to RJC’s involvement with EcoSmart™ to incorporate incentive for the use of (SCM’s) in the new LEED® Canada-NC Version 1.0 document.

In Canada, the latest buzz word in the wood industry is Cross Laminated Timber (CLT). Similar to plywood, CLT is made up of cross laminated dimensional lumber layers glued together resulting in solid wood building components that can be used for floors and walls.

The technology has been practiced in Europe for the past 10 years, and RJC is currently collaborating with industry and researchers to bring this alternative building system to Canada. We recently finished the structural and building envelope design for one of the first CLT projects in Canada, the iHouse, which was on display during the 2010 Olympics. 

RJC increases efficiencies in building design through the use of REVIT, a leading edge three-dimensional Building Information Modeling software (BIM) program. RJC's in-house experts can employ this intuitive software to take projects through 100% working drawings and construction.

RJC has delivered on large-scale and complex projects using this cutting edge and fully integrated software. Specifically, for the Calgary Airport Calgary International Airport - International Facilities Project, RJC pushed the limits of REVIT to develop intricate parametric models and views.

Our in-house BIM Committee is dedicated to expanding education and expertise around future BIM integration. As supporting members of the Canada BIM Council, RJC is excited and ready to meet our clients' needs today, and committed to growing our capabilities for tomorrow.