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Strategic Partners Network Continues to Expand

MCEER welcomes four companies to its Strategic Partnerships Network. The new members add depth and breadth to the Center’s growing network of partners in business, industry and government. The following provides a brief introduction to these new partners.

Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utilities, joins the Strategic Partnerships Network as a Flagship Partner. The Edison International subsidiary serves more than 13 million people in a 50,000 square-mile area of central, coastal and southern California excluding the City of Los Angeles and certain other cities. Based in Rosemead, California, the utility has been providing electric service in the region for 119 years. SCE’s service territory includes approximately 430 cities and communities.

Oakland-based Rutherford & Chekene, a new Premier Partner, is one of California’s foremost engineering practices, providing structural, civil and geotechnical engineering. The firm’s staff of 75 provides multidisciplinary services that are of particular value to clients requiring cost-effective solutions to challenges involving the interface of the building with the site. The principals and senior engineers of Rutherford & Chekene are involved in ongoing research on building material characteristics and structural system performance analysis. They serve on many of the country’s most respected research councils focused on seismic design and building code development.

Trane, a business of American Standard Companies, has also joined as a Premier Partner. The company is a leading global provider of indoor comfort systems and comprehensive facility solutions. Its offerings include energy efficient heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, service and parts support, sophisticated building controls and financial solutions. The company has offices, service operations, joint ventures and manufacturing facilities around the world. Trane is also represented on the Technical Oversight Committee of the MCEER-ASHRAE Consortium, a newly-formed industrial collaboration examining seismic behavior of restraint and isolation systems for equipment.

NGC Testing Services, a new member at the Partner level, features one of North America’s most sophisticated and unique fully accredited testing facilities, providing full-scale fire, acoustical and structural testing at a single location. Headquartered near Buffalo, New York, NGC evaluates a wide range of materials and products, including building materials, construction systems and assemblies. Facilities include a complete acoustical testing complex and three full-scale furnaces in a 40,000-square-foot fire-testing laboratory.