An IMEG project has earned a Structural Engineers Association of Southern California (SEAOSC) 2026 Structural Engineering Excellence (SEE) Award of Merit, and a second project was a finalist. 

Confidential client – theater project | Santa Clara, CA | Award of Merit: Retrofit/Alteration category 

The winning project, the creation of a new theater within the confidential client’s existing five-story steel-framed office building, won the Award of Merit: Retrofit / Alteration category. 

To create the volume of space needed for the theater, over 5,000-sf of second-floor space was demolished, forming a large multi-story opening through the center of the building to create the volume for the theater. Removing interior columns and floor area disrupted the original gravity load path and complicated how seismic forces would dissipate through the structure during an earthquake. To resolve this, the engineers designed a long-span internal truss system to “bridge” the new opening, support multiple levels above, and integrate with the building’s existing braced-frame lateral system—carefully balancing how seismic load was attracted to the new truss versus the original framing. 

A major success was accomplishing this dramatic tenant improvement without triggering a costly, building-wide seismic retrofit.  

Elco Yards | Redwood City, CA | Finalist: New Construction category 

Elco Yards, a new, 670,000-sf mixed-use redevelopment on 8.3 acres and six city blocks, was a finalist in the New Construction category. The project demolished four city blocks to construct four new life science buildings with below-grade parking and included six blocks of public infrastructure improvements.