Welcome to the Structural Masonry Coalition Website

Complementary Masonry Design Support Services

Funded by various masonry partners, structural engineers are available to offer free third-party support for structural masonry engineering, design assistance, technical service, education, and training. These engineers complement the engineer-of-record to create efficient masonry solutions so masonry can be “value-engineered” into projects.

It is sometimes true that inefficiently designed masonry systems and can be slow and expensive. However, often with minor design efficiencies, masonry can be faster and less expensive than structural steel and precast solutions. Using appropriate CMU strengths readily available results in cost reductions due to less rebar, grout, and better connections to masonry.

Mission

Structural Masonry Coalitions are an alliance of masonry organizations working together to encourage the use of structural masonry by providing resources and design support to the engineering community.

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

Goal

The Coalition seeks to be a resource for structural engineering communities 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 engineers and architects design buildings that are innovative and meet current code requirements and design objectives while taking full advantage of the efficiencies of structural masonry.