Peter Babaian
Senior Principal Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc.
Peter Babaian is the Building Technology Division Head at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger’s Chicago office. Since joining the firm in 2001, he has led the design, investigation, and rehabilitation of both structures and building enclosures. His expertise spans new construction consulting, historic preservation, building enclosure commissioning, and forensic investigations of non-performing systems. Peter also provides expert services in construction litigation. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in over 25 states and a licensed Structural Engineer in Illinois, Nebraska, and Hawaii. An active contributor to industry advancement, Peter chairs The Masonry Society’s Technical Activities Committee and has previously led the Structural Engineering Institute of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers. He frequently publishes and lectures on topics including historic preservation and enclosure commissioning at conferences, universities, and professional associations nationwide.
Seminars
- Clarifying the role of mock-ups, in-production testing, and on-site validation in verifying system performance
- Addressing misconceptions around pre-tested systems and the need for project-specific evaluations
- Exploring strategies for resolving issues uncovered during testing to maintain delivery timelines and quality standards
- Evaluating structural-to-panel compatibility to accommodate differential movement across floors and framing systems
- Understanding panel-to-panel movement and developing detailing strategies to preserve enclosure integrity across all four control layers
- Extracting broader lessons from seismic detailing – such as anchorage layout, dead load vs. wind load transfer, panel joint sizing, panel crumple zones, and connection strategy – that apply to non-seismic prefabrication projects – that apply to non-seismic prefabrication projects
