Terry McDonnell is an Associate Principal with Simpson Gumpertz & Heger located in their Chicago office. He has over 19 years of experience in structural engineering design and project management. During this time, he has served clients and building owners alike by bringing out of the box thinking to highly technical problems and projects in order to deliver them in a timely and cost effective manner. Project types include new design and adaptive reuse and reconfiguration of existing structures.
Terry's experience includes commercial office, residential, transportation, and sports and recreation with a particular emphasis on hospitality and entertainment venues. These venues often include high end design with challenging geometries and a backbone structure that can not only be beautiful, but flexible for multiple purposes and cost effective.
Terry is at the cutting edge of technology on the use of transparent materials such as glass, acrylic, and ETFE and their use in building and structural design. He has won several awards for creative use of transparent materials including the Willis Tower glass Ledge and the Eaton's Center Glass Bridge.
Terry graduated from the University of Michigan with both his Undergraduate and Master's Degrees in structural engineering. He has been active in past ASCE committee's including Sustainability and Aesthetics in Design. Recently he was past president of the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois, and is also a member of the ASTM E-06 on Performance of Buildings.
