User:Nannie Big Sister/Christopher G tyson

Christopher G. Tyson (30 April 1929 – ) was a hurricane resistant construction expert and professional engineer in Dade County, now called Miami-Dade, in the 1960’s and through the years after Hurricane Andrew in 2001.

Tyson graduated from Yale University in 1948 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering. Tyson studied engineering with Professor Hardy Cross, who was then the head of the Civil Engineering Department at Yale University. Tyson later completed his Master of Civil Engineering in 1957 from Yale University after he had worked with Raymond Concrete Pile Company. He also worked with Bradford Associates where he was a bridge engineer doing preliminary designs for highway overpasses for the State of Connecticut. Christopher did work for Wescott and Mapes designing 32 bridges for the Greenwich Killingsley Expressway.

Chris started his profession in the Miami area with Maurice H. Connell and Associates in 1957. At Connell and Associates there were nine or ten structural engineers working on designing launching towers for the Saturn rocket program. Christopher's job was to design the four main trusses for complex 39. The tower was going to be 300 feet tall and 90 ft.² at the base with the front sloped inward.

Tyson worked for Dade County, Florida beginning in 1963 as the Construction Control Supervisor of the Building and Zoning Department of Dade County, and worked on updating the county building code. Tyson worked with Herbert Saffir, co-creator of what became known as the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. On October 23, 1963 The Miami Herald stated that Tyson said that the Dade building code provided for protection against winds up to 120 miles an hour, but with a safety factor and quoted Tyson who explained that the protection meant possible withstanding winds of 150 miles an hour or more for a time. In 1964 Christopher completed the long project of drafting an ordinance for safety glass in sliding doors. He understood the necessity after he saw the damage and devastation of glass shattering into homes after hurricanes. In 1965, Tyson was promoted to Assistant Metro Building Director for Dade County. In the Home Section of The Miami Herald on Sunday, September 12, 1965 the newspaper quoted Tyson again in reference to the hurricane building code, shortly after Hurricane Betsy. Christopher went to the Dominican Republic after Hurricane Inez. The Organization of American States asked Dade County to borrow the hurricane construction expert to assist them with their buildings, structures and hurricane implications as they invested funds in the country for reconstruction.

Tyson was a member of the Florida Chapter of the ASCE for over 30 years and was the President of the Florida Chapter of the ASCE for a term.

Christopher rejoined Dade County in the Public Works Department as a division head of the Division of Civil Engineering in 1970. One of his most favorite projects during his five-year and nine-month tenure until 1976, was the Solid Waste Task Force which studied alternatives for the county solid waste stream.

In 1976 Tyson started work with the American Iron and Steel Institute. He was the General Manager of Codes and Standards Activities for the American Iron and Steel Institute in Washington, D.C. for a decade. Tyson traveled the world advocating for better construction standards and specifically providing his structural engineering expertise for iron and steel construction. He attended numerous International Organization for Standardization meetings around the world. He was sometimes the only United States representative for Codes and Standards at these meetings.

Tyson was employed by various private firms during parts of his long career.

He has been an advocate for stricter codes in hurricane-prone areas and an advocate for the use of iron and steel in many construction applications.

He resides in Coral Gables, Florida as he has for most of his professional engineering career. He has published articles on designing bridges and buildings for high wind resistance, including the article from the American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Structural Engineering, entitles “Discussion of "Proof-Load Factors and Reliability. He served on the subcommittee on Wind Effects for the Structural Engineering Institute of the ASCE in from 1997 to 2001. As recently as 2004, Chris Tyson was assisting with constructive comments on the Coral Gables Zoning Code rewriting. His professional stamp can be seen on many Notice of Acceptance documents approved by Miami-Dade County Building Code Compliance Office Production Control Division.

References
Miami Herald, Oct 23, 1963, Article on Hurricane resistant construction
Miami Herald, Home Section, Miami Herald on Sunday, September 12, 1965, about the Hurricane Building Code
ASCE, SEI subcommittee on Wind Effects
ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, Discussion of "Proof-Load Factors and Reliability" [1]
Structural Engineeing Institute of the ASCE http://www.123people.com/ext/frm?ti=person%20finder&search_term=christopher%20g%20tyson&search_country=US&st=person%20finder&target_url=http%3A%2F%2Flrd.yahooapis.com%2F_ylc%3DX3oDMTVnbnA5bTliBF9TAzIwMjMxNTI3MDIEYXBwaWQDc1k3Wlo2clYzNEhSZm5ZdGVmcmkzRUx4VG5makpERG5QOWVKV1NGSkJHcTJ1V1dFa0xVdm5IYnNBeUNyVkd5Y2REVElUX2tlBGNsaWVudANib3NzBHNlcnZpY2UDQk9TUwRzbGsDdGl0bGUEc3JjcHZpZANsQy5KYzJLSWNyclFfRHl3b0w4aGljYW5XODV4dmtyckdVOEFCQkxz%2FSIG%3D11eua788c%2F**http%253A%2F%2Fwww.asce.org%2Fpdf%2F2002section14.pdf&section=weblink&wrt_id=227 Screen Enclosure Specifications [2]
Tests on Uniform Static Pressure Test Loading On Standard Accordion Shutters [3]