Designing for Safety: How Protective Engineering Can Reduce Active Shooter Risks

Active shooter incidents are an unfortunate reality in today's world, making it essential for organizations and building designers to prioritize safety. Traditional security measures are no longer enough—protective design engineering plays a crucial role in preventing and mitigating these threats. By integrating strategic security features into architectural design, buildings can deter attackers, slow intrusions, and provide safe evacuation or shelter options for occupants.

Understanding Active Shooter Threats

Active shooter events are unpredictable and unfold rapidly, requiring immediate response measures. Statistics show an increasing trend in such incidents across workplaces, schools, and public spaces, emphasizing the importance of proactive planning. Protective design engineering aims to create environments that naturally discourage threats and enhance occupant safety.

Core Principles of Protective Design

Protective design engineering is based on key security principles that strengthen buildings against threats:

• Natural Surveillance: Increasing visibility through strategic lighting, window placement, and open layouts.
• Access Control: Restricting entry points and implementing secure doors or ID-based access systems.
• Territorial Reinforcement: Using landscaping and barriers to define public and private areas.
• Target Hardening: Strengthening windows, doors, and entryways to resist forced entry.

How Protective Design Enhances Security

By applying these principles, organizations can create safer environments that not only deter attackers but also assist law enforcement in responding effectively. For example, reinforced doors and secure rooms can provide occupants with critical seconds to hide or escape. Smart security measures such as biometric access controls and AI-driven surveillance further enhance building safety.

Read more on our website! 

The IEI Physical Security Advantage

As Physical Security Professionals (PSP), we have conducted physical security risk assessments for individual buildings and entire campuses. We have lead design teams in the incorporation of physical security into the building design.

We have also performed physical security peer reviews of finished designs on behalf of the government. And with our expertise in structural engineering including structural dynamics, we're able to holistically engineer buildings for ballistic and explosive threats including hardening and progressive collapse resistance. With our extensive Engineer of Record (EOR), we can easily manage the incorporation of protective design and physical security measures into each of the discipline drawings and specifications. 

Our sought-after expertise has resulted in numerous peer reviewed presentations at professional society conferences and symposiums in the area of physical security, risk assessments, terroristic and wartime threats, blast and progressive-collapse resistance design, and vehicle barriers. 

Contact us today to see how we can help you with your next project!

What is Building Envelope Water Intrusion?

Water intrusion through a building’s envelope—whether it be the walls, windows, roofs, or foundation—is one of the most common and costly issues property owners and managers face. If left unchecked, it can lead to structural damage, mold growth, and compromised indoor air quality, all of which can significantly impact both the safety, longevity, and value of a building.

The building envelope is designed to keep the outside elements, like rain and snow, from entering the interior. But sometimes, despite the best efforts in design and construction, water can find its way in. This is called water intrusion, and it can come from a variety of sources like leaks in the roof, cracks in the foundation, or improperly sealed windows.

Roof (or Plaza Slab): For a roof to successfully keep water out of a building, the bulk water should be shed quickly and efficiently from the roof surface or the drainage layer within a plaza or green roof. Ponding, which is standing water 48 hours after precipitation (rain) is unacceptable. Standing water can break down asphaltic and polymeric roofing material. Water can also freeze and erode embedded gravel UV protective surface. Standing water can also find its way through the smallest of imperfections within the roofing system. For these reasons, ponding also voids roofing warranties. The secondary barrier is the actual roofing material itself.  And the tertiary water management layer is the building's HVAC system that deals with what little moisture enters the building.

Exterior Walls: For a wall to successfully keep water out of a building, the bulk water should be shed quickly and efficiently from the outer wall cladding. Water that penetrates the cladding should be drained and evaporated within a secondary drainage plane backed up by a water-resistant barrier. And the fourth water management layer is the building's HVAC system that deals with what little moisture enters the building.

Read more on our website!

Schedule Your Building Envelope and Water Intrusion Inspection Today

No one likes surprises. Having a building envelope inspection and report done only to realize during the restoration that the budget you were given isn’t enough to complete the project can create unnecessary problems and possibly damage reputations.

We take a very holistic and thorough approach to building envelope inspection, forensic investigation, reporting, and estimating of repair costs. Innovative Engineering’s staff includes engineers with expertise in both structural and building envelope engineering. They also have relationships with reputable restoration contractors with real-time pricing. If you or others have tried unsuccessful to solve water intrusion issues, contact IEI. Chances are they have dealt with similar conditions. If not, they have the education, certifications, experience, and a quiver full of specialized diagnosis tools to diagnose and solve the water intrusion issue.

Water Intrusion: Prevention and Cure

Water intrusion through a building’s envelope—whether it be the walls, windows, roofs, or foundation—is one of the most common and costly issues property owners and managers face.

Preventing and solving water intrusion problems during the life of the water management system is actually pretty simple. Only a few principles need to be adhered to:

1. Everything leaks. The entire building envelope including the roof, walls, fenestrations (doors, and windows), penetrations, plaza slabs, and foundations leak.
2. The entire building envelope needs to have at least 3 layers of water management. The exterior layer should shed the bulk rainwater, the secondary layer should drain the water that passes the other layer, and whatever remaining moisture that reaches the interior of the building gets evaporated within the building’s conditioned air.

Read more on our website!

Schedule Your Building Envelope and Water Intrusion Inspection Today

No one likes surprises. Having a building envelope inspection and report done only to realize during the restoration that the budget you were given isn’t enough to complete the project can create unnecessary problems and possibly damage reputations.

We take a very holistic and thorough approach to building envelope inspection, forensic investigation, reporting, and estimating of repair costs. Innovative Engineering’s staff includes engineers with expertise in both structural and building envelope engineering. They also have relationships with reputable restoration contractors with real-time pricing. If you or others have tried unsuccessful to solve water intrusion issues, contact IEI. Chances are they have dealt with similar conditions. If not, they have the education, certifications, experience, and a quiver full of specialized diagnosis tools to diagnose and solve the water intrusion issue.

The Benefits of Effective Structural Engineering

The building envelope is the physical barrier between the interior and exterior of a building. Components of the envelope typically include roofs, plaza slabs (outdoor floors), exterior walls, openings for doors, windows, skylights, louvers etc. and below grade water management systems. 

The envelope also provides structural resistance to wind, seismic, and gravity loads as well as environmental protection from the elements, including moisture and temperature. 

A well-designed building envelope offers numerous benefits:

• Enhanced Safety: Ensuring the stability of the envelope under extreme events like earthquakes, high winds and bomb blast.
• Improved Energy Efficiency: Minimizing air leakage and thermal bridging, reducing energy consumption for heating and cooling.
• Increased Durability: Protecting the building from moisture damage, corrosion, and other forms of deterioration.   
• Occupant Comfort: Maintaining a stable indoor environment with controlled temperature, humidity, and ventilation.

While there is often overlap, condition assessments and failure investigations of the envelope can be broken down into two categories: structural and waterproofing. Our inspectors are cross trained in both.

Read more on our website!

Prioritize Your Building Envelope Inspection!

No one likes surprises. Having a building envelope inspection and report done only to realize during the restoration that the budget you were given is not enough to complete the project can creates unnecessary problems and possibly damage reputations. IEI takes a very holistic and thorough approach to building envelope inspection, forensic investigation, reporting and estimating of repair costs. Our staff includes engineers with construction experience including estimating and scheduling. We are also backed up by very reputable restoration contractors with real-time cost data. Contact us today!

Understanding the Building Envelope in Structural Engineering

Determining the root cause of a building envelope deficiency can be very challenging, though possible if you understand how building water management and superstructures are constructed, how they behave when subjected to moisture, ultraviolet light (UV), high temperatures, movement and load, and the failure mechanisms involved. 

As experts in the design and construction of buildings and envelopes deterioration mechanisms relating to the specific materials and assemblies of the envelope, our building envelope inspection services include a critical examination of as-built drawings, user interviews and research, broad and close inspection of the building envelope, photographic evidence collection, and estimating repairs and reporting.

The building envelope comprises various components, including:

• Walls: Providing vertical enclosure and resistance to lateral loads.   
• Roof: Protecting against weather elements and supporting snow and wind loads.   
• Foundation: Transferring building loads to the ground and resisting soil pressure.   
• Windows and Doors: Allowing natural light and access while maintaining thermal and air barriers. Openings may also need to be reinforced for bomb blast.  

Each of these components requires careful structural design to withstand various forces and environmental conditions.   

Structural Considerations in Building Envelope Design

Structural engineers consider several factors when designing building envelopes:

• Loads: The envelope must resist various loads, including: 
• Dead Loads: The weight of the envelope components themselves.
• Live Loads: Occupant loads, furniture, and equipment.   
• Environmental Loads: Wind, snow, rain, and seismic forces.  

Read more on our website!

Prioritize Your Building Envelope Inspection!

No one likes surprises. Having a building envelope inspection and report done only to realize during the restoration that the budget you were given is not enough to complete the project can creates unnecessary problems and possibly damage reputations. IEI takes a very holistic and thorough approach to building envelope inspection, forensic investigation, reporting and estimating of repair costs. Our staff includes engineers with construction experience including estimating and scheduling. We are also backed up by very reputable restoration contractors with real-time cost data. Contact us today!

Blast-Resistant Design for Property and Building Owners

Property and building owners and managers should employ a comprehensive approach to blast design:

• Threat Assessment: We work with our clients to define the potential threats, considering factors such as the type and size of explosive, standoff distance, and potential points of attack.
• Performance Objectives: We establish clear performance objectives, defining the acceptable level of damage for different blast scenarios. This might range from minimal structural damage to ensuring life safety.
• Advanced Analysis: We use sophisticated software to model the blast event and analyze the structural response. This includes:
• Blast load modeling: Simulating the complex pressure-time history of the blast wave.
• Nonlinear dynamic analysis: Assessing the structural behavior under extreme loading conditions, considering material nonlinearities and large deformations.
• Design Strategies: Based on the analysis results, we implement design strategies to enhance the blast resistance of the structure. These may include:
•  Ductile detailing: Designing connections and members to deform in a controlled manner, absorbing energy and preventing brittle failure.
•  Stand-Off Distance: Locate parking and roadways to decrease the bomb blast pressures.
•  Redundancy: Build in redundant load paths to minimize the likelihood of progressive collapse.
• Material Selection: Builders should select materials with high strength, ductility, and energy absorption capacity. This may include:
• Ductility: Utilize ductile materials such as steel to absorb the energy from a blast.
• Mass: Utilize heavy cladding to absorb the energy from a blast.

Read the full article on our website!

Blast Design Expertise for Your Business

As technology evolves, so too does physical security design engineering. Integration with cyber security systems and the use of advanced surveillance techniques are becoming increasingly common. This field is constantly adapting to meet the ever-changing security landscape.

By combining engineering expertise with a keen understanding of security threats, physical security design engineers play a vital role in creating safe and secure environments for people and property.

We not only have in-depth knowledge of physical security and blast design criteria; we have access to interpretations and those who make them. Contact us today to learn more!

Blast Design for Defense

In today’s world, the threat of explosive attacks is a serious concern for a wide range of structures, from government buildings and military installations to critical infrastructure and commercial properties.

As a structural engineering company, we understand the importance of designing and constructing buildings that can withstand the devastating effects of blasts.
Understanding the Challenge

Blast events generate extreme loads in a very short time, creating complex dynamic forces that can cause catastrophic damage to conventional structures. These forces include:

•     Airblast: The rapid overpressure wave generated by the explosion.
•     Ground shock: The seismic waves transmitted through the ground.
•     Fragmentation: High-velocity debris propelled by the blast.

The goal of blast design is to mitigate these effects, protecting both the structure itself and the people inside.

Read more on our website!

 Blast Design Expertise for Your Business

As technology evolves, so too does physical security design engineering. Integration with cyber security systems and the use of advanced surveillance techniques are becoming increasingly common. This field is constantly adapting to meet the ever-changing security landscape.

By combining engineering expertise with a keen understanding of security threats, physical security design engineers play a vital role in creating safe and secure environments for people and property.

We not only have in-depth knowledge of physical security and blast design criteria; we have access to interpretations and those who make them. Contact us today to learn more!