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Awarded Contracts for External Experts to Support the 

NIST World Trade Center (WTC) Disaster Investigation

Contract No. Awarded to Date Awarded

SB1341-03-W-0862 Rolf Jensen & Associates, Inc. 

(RJA)

7/25/2003

ANALYSIS OF BUILDING AND FIRE CODES AND PRACTICES

Under solicitation number SB1341-03-Q-0272, a firm fixed price purchase order has been awarded to 

Rolf Jensen & Associates, Inc. (RJA), New York City and its team composed of S.K. Ghosh Associates, 

Inc. (SKGA), Northbrook, IL and Rosenwasser/Grossman Consulting Engineers, P.C. (RG), New York 

City. 

RJA is a consulting engineering firm specializing in life safety and fire protection engineering. RJA has 

extensive experience since 1968 in the development of fire protection programs for high-rise buildings 

and the application of codes and standards to these types of structures. SKGA is an engineering firm 

established in 1998 that provides structural, seismic, and code-related services to engineers, trade 

associations, code-writing bodies, and government agencies involved in design and construction 

programs. RG is a structural engineering firm specializing in the design of high-rise buildings since 1954. 

RG has designed over 500 high-rise buildings in New York City, and also provides services in inspection 

and repair of high-rise buildings.

Specific tasks that the RJA team will perform include:

1. Document the design and construction of structural systems for World Trade Center Buildings 1, 2, and 

7.

2. Document the design and construction of fire protection systems for WTC Buildings 1, 2, and 7. 

3. Document the fuel system for emergency power in WTC Building 7.

4. Compare building regulatory and code requirements.

5. Document the maintenance and modifications to structural, fire protection and egress systems. 

The principal investigators of the team from RJA, SKGA and RG are world leaders in life safety, fire 

protection, codes and standards, and structural engineering. Both RJA and RG have extensive 

experience in fire safety and structural design of high-rise buildings in New York City, including the 

Millennium Hilton Hotel at the WTC site. The key members of SKGA have a long history of dealing with 

the development of provisions for national codes and standards and the investigation of code-related 

issues. 

Selected experience of these key project personnel is summarized below:

Mr. Raymond A. Grill is a senior vice president of Rolf Jensen & associates. He has over 20 years of 

experience in the development of fire protection and life safety programs for buildings of all types. He has 

served as an expert on litigation involving building and fire code compliance and fire protection system 

performance. He has authored many articles on fire protection related topics and made presentations at 

NFPA World Congresses. He is a fellow and a member of the board of directors of the Society of Fire 
2 http://www.nist.gov/el/disasterstudies/wtc/wtc_contracts.cfm

Protection Engineers, and a member of the National Fire Protection Association, the International Code 

Council, and the Building Officials and Code Administrators International.

Dr. S. K. Ghosh is the president of S.K. Ghosh Associates, Inc. He has over 20 years of experience in the 

development of seismic design code provisions for national model building codes and standards including 

ASCE 7 Standard for Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and ACI 318 Building Code Requirements for 

Structural Concrete. He has carried out numerous code-comparison studies including comparison of the 

seismic provisions of the New York City Code with the NEHRP Recommended Provisions (1997), and the 

wind-load provisions of the New York City Code with the ASCE 7-98 Standard. He and RJA jointly 

published a guide on the structural provisions of the International Building Code (IBC), and prepared the 

2000 IBC Handbook, which provides an in-depth commentary on the structural provisions of the 2000 

IBC.

Mr. Jacob S. Grossman is the president and CEO of Rosenwasser/Grossman Consulting Engineers, P.C. 

He has been involved in the design of over 1000 steel and concrete buildings since 1957, three of these 

buildings are among the 100 tallest in the world. He is active in national and local code committees 

including the Building Code Committee for New York City. Mr. Grossman was a technical consultant to 

the Applied Technology Council for the development of “NEHRP Guidelines for the Seismic Rehabilitation 

of Buildings.” Mr. Grossman is a member of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, and has 

written, lectured, and given seminars on the design of steel and concrete structures, and on construction 

procedures.

The key project personnel will be supported by other experienced staff of their respective organizations 

for completing various sub-tasks of this project.