Masonry Day at Calvin College
A Calvin College interim class on designing brick and block buildings will host a Masonry Day at the college on Monday, January 15 from 9 am to 2:30 pm. The event is open to the public and participants will gain four hours of continuing education units.
Calvin's Leonard DeRooy is teaching the interim class (during interim students take one class for three hours per day for three weeks) to 20 students, all of whom are civil engineering majors. He says the upcoming conference will give his students a chance to network and a chance for some hands-on experience. That's because the noon hour at the conference will feature hands-on masonry cavity wall building!
"It should be a lot of fun," DeRooy says with a smile. "If you want to learn how to actually lay some brick or block this is the place for you."
This event is co-sponsored by the International Masonry Institute (IMI), Masonry Contractors Association (MCA) and the Masonry Institute of Michigan (MIM).
Speakers for the conference include Peter Loughney from the International Masonry Institute, Tony Darkangelo from the Masonry Institute of Michigan and Dan Zechmeister also from the Masonry Institute of Michigan, and Tom McCord from the International Masonry Institute.
Sessions in the morning and afternoon will be on such topics as masonry value and sustainability, masonry design software, masonry cavity walls, masonry movement joints, and flashing and moisture control.
DeRooy graduated from Calvin College in 1985 and was the first Calvin four-year program graduate to become a licensed professional engineer. From 1986 to 1999 he worked as a structural engineer for URS Greiner (one of his projects was DeVries Hall at Calvin, a four-story concrete waffle slab structure).
