Weidlinger Hires Associate Principal James Wesevich to Open Texas Office

New York, NY, February 06, 2014 --(PR.com)-- International structural engineer Weidlinger Associates, Inc., announced the hiring of James Wesevich, PE, SE, as an associate principal in the firm’s Applied Science & Investigations Group. Wesevich will play a critical role in developing Weidlinger’s business in the Southwest by establishing an office in Austin, Texas, to expand the company’s Texas-area practice.

“The petrochemical and commercial industries in Texas and Louisiana continue to experience economic growth, outpacing the rest of the country,” said Weidlinger Principal Darren Tennant, “and Weidlinger is ideally suited to take advantage of the opportunities this presents. Jim will lead our efforts to offer services to a variety of energy, government, and commercial clients in the region.”

The current boom, fueled in part by advances in shale exploration, represents the largest petrochemical expansion in Texas since the 1980s. The state is home to four of Forbes magazine’s top 10 “Fastest Growing American Cities” of 2013, with Austin, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio ranking first, second, third, and ninth, respectively. Houston is home to more Fortune 500 companies than any U.S. city except for New York.

In addition to establishing a formal presence in Texas, Wesevich will support business development and will manage structural engineering projects, leveraging his expertise in commercial and protective design and damage investigation. His efforts will be closely integrated with Weidlinger’s Albuquerque, New Mexico, office.

Prior to joining Weidlinger, Wesevich, a 27-year Texas resident, was a senior principal engineer, manager of structural validation, and manager of protective structures at Baker Engineering and Risk Consultants. He is a licensed structural engineer with more than 26 years of experience in petrochemical building assessment, structural retrofits, protective design, hazard mitigation, open-air and shock tube structural validation research, vendor product development, and forensic accident investigations. He has developed structural hardened designs and building retrofits for many federal agencies, petrochemical facilities, oil-field-service providers and pharmaceuticals companies, and has provided expert witness testimony for explosion-related forensic legal cases based on his expertise in dynamic nonlinear finite element analysis.

Wesevich has published more than 30 papers in technical journals. He holds a BS in civil engineering from Texas A&M University and an MS in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Weidlinger Associates is a leader in the fields of advanced analysis, structural dynamics, and design for extreme events and has contributed to a number of significant projects in Texas, including structural engineering and antiterrorism force protection design for the Veterans Administration Outpatient Facility in Corpus Christi, blast protection and explosive safety design for a high-explosive pressing facility at the U.S. Department of Energy Pantex plant in Amarillo, and blast engineering design for the new FBI Office Building in San Antonio.

Weidlinger Associates, Inc., is a structural engineering firm that designs and rehabilitates buildings, bridges, and infrastructure and provides special services in applied science, forensics, and physical security. The firm, which employees about 300 full-time staff, celebrated its 60th year in 2009. It is recognized worldwide for its innovative and practical design solutions and for its long-term commitment to advancing the state of the art in engineering. Headquartered in New York City, the firm has branch offices in the United States and the United Kingdom. For more information, please see www.wai.com