Here at Morabito Consultants we have a deep understanding of the importance of family.  The holiday season is a joyous time of year, and we cherish every moment we get to celebrate with our own friends and family.   Last weekend our employees and their partners got together to celebrate at our annual Christmas party.  We had a great time, but we also know this time of year can be especially difficult for those with young children battling various health issues.  To that extent, we are proud to have partnered with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for our annual giving campaign.  Our employees donated nearly $2500 for those who need our help the most. 

Over the years Morabito Consultants has been fortunate to be an integral part of the design team for many Independent and Assisted Living Facilities and their associated Community Centers.

MC designed 640,000 SF of independent living and apartments, over 42,000 SF of assisted living, and a 45,000 SF commons building that comprise the community known as Mercy Ridge in Baltimore, MD. This large community was constructed over two phases creating a beautiful sprawling campus supplying all the comforts of home with upscale and convenient amenities desired by retirees.

At Oak Crest Village in Baltimore, MD we designed three (3) two-story community buildings spread through the campus and a four-story assisted living and care center. The community buildings provided convenient dining, lounge, amenities spaces and much more to the residents. The unique green roof of the assisted living and care center set it apart from the other buildings on the campus.

MC has continued to design independent and assisted living communities throughout the region and pride ourselves on providing economical designs for even the more complex structures. Stay tuned as we will be highlighting more recently completed project in the coming weeks!

This Thanksgiving, we would like to share our sincere gratitude to our clients, families, and friends. Your continued support and trust in our firm is truly appreciated! We hope everyone has a safe, healthy, and relaxing Thanksgiving!

Best wishes,

Morabito Consultants

We recently highlighted some of our exciting private school educational projects in the Baltimore region.  Today we are looking across the Chesapeake Bay to highlight two recent public schools – the North Dorchester High School and the Somerset County Technical High School (aka JM Tawes). 

MC worked alongside Hord, Coplan & Macht and Gipe Associates to design the replacement North Dorchester High School in Hurlock, MD. This 117,150sf, 2-story facility opened in 2019 and is nestled together with the adjacent middle school and a community athletic and recreation complex.  Large windows in the exterior walls allow ample natural light into the building and helped this project earn a LEED silver rating.

The Somerset County Technical High School (JM Tawes) opened in 2019 and is certified LEED gold.  MC teamed with Becker Morgan Group & Gipe Associates to design this 103,000sf school featuring exposed structural framing and mechanical systems that serve as teaching aids for the various trade programs.  This project has won several awards such as ENR Regional Best Project, AIA Maryland Merit Award, and an AIA Chesapeake Bay Award!

Morabito Consultants takes great pride in designing incredible educational facilities where our future AEC industry leaders get their start! Over the years we have developed wonderful relationships with many private school institutions in the Baltimore region such as Boys Latin, Mt. De Sales, Loyola Blakefield, Friends School, Gilman, Mt. Saint Joseph, and McDonogh (among others). Today we are highlighting a few recent private school projects.

Just this past year we worked with JMT Architecture & BKM (MEP) to design the state-of-the-art St. Ignatius Hall at the Loyola Blakefield middle school – winner of an ACI MD Excellence in Concrete award. In 2020, alongside Bowie Gridley Architects and James Posey (MEP), we designed the replacement Greenebaum Middle School at the McDonogh School in Owings Mills, MD – winner of an Award of Excellence from ABC Greater Baltimore. And in 2016 we worked with Ziger/Snead Architects to design the renovations and additions to the Friends School of Baltimore Performing and Fine Arts Center – winner of AIA Baltimore and AIA Maryland awards.

MC is proud of the relationships we have built within our local private school community. Stay tuned for future updates as we have several other private school projects in the works!

Today, MC looks back on this unique and exciting project where we provided demolition engineering support for various industrial structures at the historic Sparrows Point Integrated Steel Mill between 2014 and 2016. The highlight of the project involved the temporary support of the three hundred foot tall, 11 million pound “L” Blast Furnace, which was the primary furnace used to convert raw iron ore brought by ship to pure elemental molten iron. MC analyzed the complex furnace structure for selective cutting to weaken the steel and designed temporary steel box columns from left-over scrap mill steel. Blast charges were added to the temporary columns and on January 15^th, 2015, with traffic halted on I-695, CDI brought the structure down under controlled demolition explosives.

Link to the demolition video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xVWPRWS2cs&t=37s

Most people tend to associate structural engineering with primarily designing for the safety of a building or other structure. However, an equally important aspect to structural engineering is designing structures to so-called “serviceability” standards. Serviceability design of structures generally relates to building performance beyond those associated with life-safety. Examples of serviceability design are vibration, deflection, and durability. Serviceability “failures” represent an overwhelming majority of building issues and directly impact occupant comfort and maintenance costs. Serviceability issues can be very easy to overlook during design & detailing, are more complex to mitigate, and require a unified effort between the structural engineer and architect.

Essentially all building components are affected by serviceability design, but structural engineers must pay particular attention to:

– Floor system performance

– Expansion and other movement joints

– Material selection for exposed structure and harsh environmental conditions

– Structure interaction with non-structural building components, such as partitions, cladding, and waterproofing

Satisfying building code minimum standards will not alone address the proper serviceable design of a building. It is critical that the design team collaborate early in the project design to identify important serviceability design considerations for successful long-term building performance.

Morabito Consultants was founded in 1983 with the goal of providing superior client services and efficient designs for a diverse array of structures.  Over the past 38 years we have developed an extensive portfolio of innovative structures that meet and exceed our clients’ needs and specifications.  Our website was long overdue for a project database refresh, and we are happy to say that it has finally started!  This fall we are working to update project photos and descriptions highlighting some of our most prestigious, interesting, and frankly coolest projects!  We encourage you to check out the new and improved Projects page on our website.  Keep an eye out for future blog posts highlighting some of our key projects from years past.

MC recently conducted a site visit at Brightview Innovation Center in Herndon, Virginia to review the construction progress. Donohoe Construction Company is currently erecting joists and setting formwork for the Hambro slab at Level 5.  Once complete, the building will consist of 6 levels of Hambro slab supported by a two-way flat plate at Level 2 for a total of 7 framed floors. The engineers at MC enjoy being hands on and making visits to active construction sites to see our designs come to life. We pride ourselves on being contractor friendly and are always working towards continuing to provide the most efficient designs for construction.