Mark Dannettel is currently located on the east coast (USA), and continues to work on a variety of projects, both 'domestic' and international.
Mark has 30 years of international experience in architecture, engineering, facade design, building technology, and research. Nearly a decade of his experience was gained while living in Asia.
Originally educated and trained as an architect, he has had a diverse career, working in architectural practices, engineering firms, universities, and construction companies. For several years, he served as Executive Designer and team leader for a design-build cable-net contractor, overseeing a team to design, engineer, and manage the fabrication and installation of complex facade solutions. Built projects included the hyper-facetted curtain wall for the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago (Krueck+Sexton), a cable-net and double facade for the Loyola University Information Commons in Chicago (SCB), and a cable-supported glass wall for the Newseum in Washington, D.C. (Polshek/Ennead).
Mark has lectured at numerous facade industry conferences in North America and Asia.
His early career included architectural practice, as well as film production and multimedia production. He has taught architecture at several universities, including SCI-Arc, UCLA, Arizona State, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Chiang Mai University in Thailand.
Facade Expertise:
Forensics / Glass Failures and Defects;
Structural Glass & Point-Supported Glass;
Cable-Supported Glass Walls & Cable Nets (Net Walls);
Unitized Curtain Walls & Highrise Construction;
Double Facades;
Metal & Stone Cladding;
ETFE (Ethylene TetraFluoroEthylene) and PTFE fabric;
AESS (Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel);
Gridshells;
Complex Geometry & Parametric Modeling of Facades;
Clash Detection and BIM for Facades;
Designing Custom Facades (Bespoke Facades);
Laboratory Mock-Up Testing & Field Testing;
Providing Field Support and Construction Expert Reviews;
Leading Design & Engineering Teams for Special Projects;
Training and Developing Engineers & Technical Staff;
Inhabit Group, New York, NY, US, Director / Facade Specialist
Mark Dannettel is a Director for the Inhabit Group in North America.
Inhabit is a unique, multi-disciplinary team of design professionals who work to improve the built environment. We are a collective of experienced architects, designers, engineers, and builders who work both independently and in partnership to form a holistic approach to the design and construction process. Our respective areas of expertise are integrated to allow interdisciplinary synergy to create buildings that are more relevant to our evolving society.
Established in 2010, with offices across the Americas | Europe | Middle East | Asia Pacific, Inhabit has developed a diverse international body of work that includes partnerships with some of the most creative and celebrated architects around the world, resulting in a wealth of experience in different project types and scales.
We are focused on design-led consultancy, providing technical and comprehensive solutions that thoughtfully and creatively consider aesthetics, engineering, cost, procurement and sustainability driving towards a building that is sensitive and inspirational within its socio-cultural context. This perspective provides an opportunity to assess and reduce risk in the design at an early phase by completely exploring and testing concepts so that specified performance can be realized.
Thornton Tomasetti, New York, NY, US, Principal / Leader of Facade Forensics
Mark Dannettel served as the leader for forensic facade services. He provided facade expertise to investigate numerous facade failures, commonly involving design defects, material defects, and construction defects.
Mark’s forensic expertise addresses a wide range of architectural glass defects, including: glass coating degradation, spontaneous nickel sulfide (NiS) breakage of tempered glass, thermal stress breakage of annealed glass, weld spatter and spark damage to glass, structural failures of glass, spandrel condensation, IGU (insulating glass unit) fogging, PIB (polyisobutylene) degradation, PVB delamination, and numerous types of glass distortion.
In addition to supporting clients and attorneys with potential litigation, Mark also assisted clients and insurers to address property losses. Mark has worked internationally on large losses due to: ballistic impacts, construction accidents, fire, blast, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, and several types of storm damage (wind, debris impacts, hail, high surf, etc.)
Other Forensic Expertise:
Mitigation of Glare and Reflection;
Structural Glass & Point-Supported Glass failures;
De-tensioning of Cable-Supported Glass Walls;
Mock-up Testing for Unitized Curtain Walls and Double Facades;
Planning and Execution of Facades for Highrise Construction;
Water Infiltration for Pre-fabricated facades;
Metal & Stone Cladding failures;
ETFE (Ethylene TetraFluoroEthylene) membrane failures;
Tolerances for AESS (Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel);
Parametric Modeling of Complex Geometric Facades;
Heat-related damage of facade materials due to fire exposure;
Structural damage of facade materials due to seismic activity;
Weather integrity degradation of materials due to aging;
Subrogation.
Thornton Tomasetti, Los Angeles, CA, US, Principal / Regional Leader for Facade Services
Mark's experience with facade consulting for new construction began in Hong Kong. Since that time in 1998, he has consulted to owners and architects on more than 100 projects, including numerous highrise towers, airports, transit centers, courthouses, federal government projects, museums, hospitals, hotels, residential towers, sports and conference facilities, and university buildings.
In addition to providing standard facade services during the design and construction phases, Mark has also provided clients with specialty services, such as: parametric geometry services for Architects; detailed design and engineering services for facade contractors; BIM modeling and clash detection work for general contractors; and other custom services.
Recent projects in Asia and the Middle East:
Keelung Harbor Terminal, Taiwan (Neil Denari)
China Construction Bank Tower, Shenzhen (Morphosis)
Tencent Headquarters Towers, Shenzhen (NBBJ)
Wuhan Greenland Tower, Wuhan, China (AS+GG)
Incheon Terminal 2, Korea (Hugh Dutton / Heerim)
CJ R&D Center, Korea (Yazdani Studio / Heerim)
College of Media, Doha (Predock)
Burj Dubai Mall, Dubai (Turner International)
Kohinoor Square Towers, Mumbai (GKK / SSA)
Recent projects in USA:
Chicago Mercantile Exchange renovation, Chicago (Krueck + Sexton)
Media Wall at McKinnon Center, Occidental College, California (Hagy Belzberg)
One Brickell CityCenter Tower, Miami (Arquitectonica)
American Express Headquarters, Miami (P+W)
GSA Federal Office building in Miramar, Florida (Krueck + Sexton)
GSA Calexico Border Crossing, California (P+W)
Veterans Administration SCI Facility, San Diego (GKK)
Stockton Courthouse, California (NBBJ)
Redding Courthouse, California (NBBJ)
Sacramento Courthouse, California (NBBJ)
Anaheim Regional Transit Center, California (HOK)
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, California (P+W)
National Children's Museum, D.C. (Pelli Clark Pelli)
Speed Art Museum, Kentucky (wHY)
Moody Center for the Arts, Houston (Maltzan)
Advanced Structures Inc. (acquired by Enclos Corp), Culver City, CA, US, Executive Designer / Team Leader
Executive Designer and Team Leader for a design-build cable-net contractor: Advanced Structures Inc. (ASI). Working with Mic Patterson and TJ Deganyar, Mark developed custom technical design solutions (bespoke systems), and led a team of designers, engineers, and project managers, to design, fabricate, and install high-end custom facades. These projects commonly included pretensioned cables (cable-nets), point-supported glass, cassette glazing, and/or complex geometries.
Built projects included:
Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago (Krueck + Sexton)
Hyper-facetted custom glass curtain wall and canopy.
Loyola University - Klarchek Information Commons in Chicago (SCB / TransSolar)
Cable-net and double-facade.
Newseum in Washington D.C. (Polshek Partners - Ennead / LERA)
Cable-supported glass wall on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Qualcomm Building 'N' in San Diego (DWRB)
Cable-supported glass atria structures.
NYU Smilow Research Center in New York (Mitchell-Giurgola)
Point-supported glass canopy on prefabricated steel structure.
Mark also provided consulting services for the new Indianapolis Airport (HOK), and assisted with consulting for the New Doha International Airport (HOK).
Note: Advanced Structures Inc. (based in Marina del Rey, California) was acquired by Enclos Corp in January 2007, and thus Mark transitioned from ASI to Enclos during the fourth year of employment.
