Structural Masonry Council Formed in New York

Structural Masonry Coalition Formed in New York State Concrete masonry unit manufacturers, mason contractors, and others who support the New York State masonry industry have formed a coalition to encourage the appropriate use of structural masonry in various applications throughout the Empire State.

The New York State Structural Masonry Coalition (NYSSMC) was formally announced in February of this year by Nicholas Carparelli, Executive Director of the New York State Concrete Masonry Association (NYSCMA) and Keith F. Lashway, PE, Upstate NY Area Director for Market Development and Technical Services of the International Masonry Institute (IMI). NYSSMC is an alliance of masonry organizations working together to encourage the use of structural masonry by providing resources and design support to the engineering community throughout New York State.

The Coalition is founded on the belief that one system – masonry – provides the engineer tremendous design flexibility; that structural masonry is a key component to sustainable design with the utilization of locally manufactured CMU; and that the economy of materials realized by the use of structural masonry results in significant cost savings.

The Coalition seeks to be a resource to New York’s engineering community by providing design assistance, technical service, and in some cases project-specific consultation and hands-on training in masonry engineering software. Our collective goal is to help New York engineers design buildings that are innovative, meet current code requirements and design objectives while taking full advantage of the efficiencies of structural masonry. Membership in the coalition is open to anyone who is a supporter of masonry systems for new building construction and renovations. Membership information can be found by following this link to the NYS Structural Masonry Coalition web page:

http://www.nyscma.org/coalitionm.asp.

For further information, contact the New York State Structural Masonry Coalition directly:  Nicholas F. Carparelli, Executive Director, NYSCMA o phone: 315-254-0518 o e-mail: ncarparelli@nys-cma.org  Keith F. Lashway, Area Director, Market Development and Technical Services, IMI o Phone: 518-956-3466 o e-mail: klashway@imiweb.org.