Engineer takes lead at top firm.

According to Ysrael A. Seinuk, life's events cannot be planned. So, when the Cuban native arrived in the United States in 1960, he had no idea that one day he would become owner of a minority structural engineering firm and, more recently, obtain the majority interest in another leading firm.

Founded in 1977, Ysrael A. Seinuk, P.C., a 100 percent minority-owned firm has engineered structural solutions for projects worth more than $5 billion in various locations throughout the United States.

The firm recently completed designs for the $240 million United States Courthouse and the $270 million Federal Office Building at Foley Square for the United States General Services Administration. According to Seinuk, the two structures are the first major buildings to be seismically constructed in New York City in conformance with the seismic design regulations of the Uniform Building Code.

Current projects in design and construction being undertaken by Ysrael A. Seinuk, P.C. include the $800 million Kings County Medical Center Complex in Brooklyn; the new $40 million Medical Laboratory Building at the State University of New York at Buffalo; and the Medical Laboratory at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Seinuk also recently acquired the majority interest in The Cantor Seinuk Group, formerly the Office of Irwin G. Cantor and an internationally recognized structural engineering firm with experience in the design of major office, multi-family housing, hotel, retail, educational, sports, industrial and governmental facilities throughout the world.

Seinuk, with a two-thirds interest in Cantor Seinuk, serves as chief executive officer and Irwin G. Cantor, P.E., FACI, FASCE, has been named president of the company.

The Cantor Seinuk Group has completed more than $7 billion of construction in the United States, Egypt, the Philippines, South America and the Far East. In recent years, the company has engineered and provided construction observation services on more than 8 million square feet of office buildings alone, as well as providing structural design for health care, hospital, laboratory, and criminal justice facilities.

Seinuk noted that the company is providing preliminary conceptual studies for two major projects, the Far East High Tech office complex in Taipei, Taiwan, and an 80,000-square-meter office complex in east Berlin, Germany.

A graduate of the University of Havana with a degree in civil engineering, Seinuk left Cuba in 1960 during the revolution and became, associated with the firm of Hertzberg & Cantor in New York where he was chief structural engineer and associate. After the company dissolved in 1970, The Office of Irwin G. Cantor, P.C. was created, with Seinuk becoming a partner.

"It was almost an accidental thing," Seinuk said about deciding to start his own company in 1977.

The economy was in a recession, he explained, and he saw the opportunity to pursue work in the public sector where The Office of Irwin G. Cantor, specialists in commercial structures, had not been immersed. So, while maintaining his affiliation with Cantor, he opened the doors of a minority-owned firm that would bear his name.

"There was a big change in the minority program and architects were obviously looking for minorities," said Seinuk. "As a result, we started doing full-service business. We can do from a small school to a pumping station, and our largest job is close to a billion dollars."

According to Seinuk, Ysrael A. Seinuk, P.C. has extensive experience in the design of housing, educational and health care facilities, laboratories, criminal justice facilities, military installations, sports complexes and office buildings, as well as expertise with the structural design of pumping stations and wastewater pollution control plants.

"Irwin Cantor came back in all its glory," said Seinuk who is a member of the Panel of Arbitrators for the American Arbitration Association, but by that time I was on my way and, as they say, the rest was history."

Ysrael A. Seinuk, P.C., which recently moved to 600 Madison Avenue, is backed by a powerful MICRO-VAX 3600 computer and a full complement of microcomputers. A state-of-the-art computer aided design and drafting (CADD) system, together with an extensive library of innovative analysis and design software packages, is used to meet the growing needs of office automation.

Seinuk also recently announced that his structural engineering firm will be working with Reuben Eytan, an internationally recognized security protection expert specializing in the design of protective structures that can withstand the effects of terrorist attacks.

"Recent events compel us to scrutinize current policies dictating the design of protective measures in sensitive urban locations." said Seinuk. "By teaming up with Mr. Eytan, a 25-year veteran in the field, we will be able to provide the most up-to-date defense design services to owners and operators of all types of buildings whose objectives are to substantially minimize structural failures in the event of bombings, reduce shock effects that can obliterate equipment, and eliminate human fatalities."

Teacher at Heart

While leading two companies and wholly owning one, Seinuk confessed that his true love is teaching, a profession he has been engaged in almost without interruption since 1956 when he served as an instructor at the Omega Academy in Havana.

"I love teaching," said Seinuk who has been a professor of Architecture at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art since 1969. "There's nothing I love more. Nothing comes close to it."

Seinuk, the chairman of the Structural Department at the Cooper Union School of Architecture, is a well-known lecturer and author in engineering, enviromental and educational subjects. He has been a guest lecturer at Cornell University, the American Concrete Institute, the Concrete Industry Board, and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

In recognition of his work in prestressed and reinforced concrete, as well as his contributions to concrete technology, Seinuk was named a fellow of the American Concrete Institute. Tbe Institution of Civil Engineers in the United Kingdom has also acknowledged Seinuk's work by naming him a fellow of that institution.

Before coming to the United States, Seinuk taught structural engineering at the University of Havana, where all positions were obtained through competition with other potential candidates.

"I used to teach at the University of Havana where I was the youngest professor ever in structural engineering," Seinuk said. "Once you were a professor, you were in. The position was won by competition."

Although admission was free at the University of Havana, Seinuk described the educational institution as a "grinding machine" in which only the most dedicated survived.

"It was natural I went into engineering because I liked physics," Seinuk said. "If my left hand wasn't hurt, maybe I would have been baseball player."

According to Seinuk, approximately 275 candidates entered the five-year program with him to become civil engineers. Only 12, including himself, graduated with a degree.

"Because it was so tough, many in the university went to private academies, where I started teaching physics," Seinuk said. "Once in university, it was survival."

Seinuk began his professional career in Cuba in 1958 by designing the 700--room Monte Carlo Hotel, a series of 1,200 low-income housing units, and two 50-story reinforced concrete buildings.

While in Cuba, by request of the Minister of Public Works, Seinuk organized and headed the Structural Department for the Ministry. As department head, he was responsible for the design of all structural work for the Ministry, including bridge, institutional, hospital, school and railway facilities.

Seinuk said he was fortunate to have worked with Martin Dominguez, a renowned architect who left Spain during the Civil War in that country prior to the start of World War Two. In 1959, Seinuk and Dominguez teamed together to complete the "Edificio Libertad," a commission won by competition.

"In Cuba, I worked for a top engineering and scientific firm, but I wanted to be innovative and go on my own," said Seinuk. "I started a small company in Cuba. I remember my first office was a two-bedroom apartment in a basement in Havana."

Seinuk credits Dominguez with helping him to land his teaching position at Cooper Union. Dominguez ended up teaching at Cornell after Castro came to power in Cuba and he happened to be good friends with the dean of Cooper Union.

"Don't ever say you can plan stuff," said Seinuk who had no hope of teaching when he first came to the United States. "I can accept being at the right place at the right time, yes, but you can't plan what happens. The dean was a good friend of Martin's and offered me a chance to teach for a year because the teacher was on sabbatical. The teacher never came back and I've been at Cooper Union ever since."

The recipient of numerous awards over the years, Seinuk was awarded the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Entrepreneur Award in 1989 as the leading structural engineer in the field of tall buildings and special structures.