Ron Klemencic is Chairman and C.E.O. of Magnusson Klemencic Associates, an award-winning, 200-person structural and civil engineering firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with a branch office in Chicago. He earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Purdue University in 1985 and his M.S. in Structural Engineering from the University of California Berkeley in 1986. Over his 30-year career, Ron has worked on projects in 24 states and 24 countries, with developments up to 650,000 m² (7 million ft²) and towers up to 112 stories. A past 5-year Chairman and current Fellow of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Ron is known for his creativity, innovation, and focus on complex high-rise and mixed-use designs.
Since pioneering the development and U.S. adoption of "Performance-Based Seismic Design" (PBSD) methodology for high-rise buildings, Ron continues to advance the application, with a current count of 38 PBSD buildings—more than any other engineer in the U.S. For San Francisco’s 80-story, 1,070-foot-tall Salesforce Tower, slated to be the tallest building in the city, Ron again advanced the standard, implementing more stringent criteria and a 25% increase in seismic safety and performance for the first Category 3 PBSD tower.
Passionate about advancing the profession, Ron is a Board member of the Charles Pankow Foundation, a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute, a member of the Chicago Committee on High-Rise Buildings, and very active in other organizations. He is also an adviser for several industry research projects and an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects.
CTBUH Malaysia Hosts Seminar: The Public Realm of Tall Buildings
21 Feb 2019, Event Report – CTBUH Malaysia hosted a seminar exploring the relationship between the design and…
Record Numbers Convene at 2018 Leaders Meeting
20 Oct 2018, Event Report – CTBUH Leaders convened on Day 1 of the 2018 Middle East Conference for updates on…
Seismic Design Working Group Meets at 2018 Conference
20 Oct 2018, Event Report – The CTBUH Performance-Based Seismic Design Working Group reconvened at the CTBUH…
3 Nov 2016 –
CTBUH "15th Annual Awards"
Chair: David Malott, KPF
3 Nov 2016 –
2016 Awards Ceremony/Symposium Interviews
Chairman & CEO, Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Finding Tailored Solutions to Common Problems
3 Nov 2016 –
CTBUH "15th Annual Awards"
Ron Klemencic, Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Life Cycle Analysis: Are We There Yet?
16 Sep 2014 –
CTBUH 2014 Shanghai Conference Proceedings
Donald Davies & Ron Klemencic, Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Tall Buildings in Future Development of Metropolitan Universities
Sep 2012 –
CTBUH 2012 9th World Congress, Shanghai
Christopher Groesbeck, VOA Associates; Jon DeVries & John McDonald, Roosevelt University; Ron Klemencic, MKA
Embodied Carbon and the Case for Longevity
Sep 2012 –
CTBUH 2012 9th World Congress, Shanghai
Ron Klemencic, Donald Davies, Derek Beaman & Ola Jonhansson, MKA
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