Structural engineering is an architectural service for designing of building structures. These include both the foundations that support a structure and the beams, columns, and other elements that make up its frame. Structural engineering ensures safety and public health by ensuring that a building can support its own weight and live within the limits of its foundation while resisting damage from natural disasters like earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes.

Structural engineering is a branch of civil engineering and structural mechanics that deals with the design, analysis and construction of buildings, bridges and other structures, from the micro-level of atoms and molecules to the macro-level of populations and economies.

You're a Consulting Engineer—but What Does That Mean? You've been working in the technical world for some time now, and you've started to notice that the term “consulting engineer” is being used more and more frequently. Nevertheless, you may still be unclear as to what it means to be a consulting engineer. In fact, you may have never even heard the term before! That's okay!