Engineers / Maurice Couchot

Maurice C. Couchot was an early and aggressive advocate of reinforced concrete on the West Coast. At the age of 36 he published “Reinforced Concrete and Fireproof Construction in the San Francisco Disaster”. Within a couple years, he co-founded the firm Couchot & MacDonald, and later Couchot, Rosenwald and Roeth. Residing in Alameda, Couchot was responsible for the engineering of several of Oakland’s historic buildings, most notably the Oakland Auditorium, which used a unique 3-hinged truss to reduce the steel weight of the roof and allowed the roof to be “self-centering”.

Aside from the many historic buildings now attributed to him, Couchot was also called in as an expert on multiple occasions, including the inspection of rivet work on Oakland City Hall during its construction. By the time of his passing in 1933, Maurice Couchot had become “internationally famous” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

• SEAONC Charter Member (1930)

• Christopher H. Snyder
• John B. Leonard

• American Society of Civil Engineers

• 1007 Market Street
• 888 Brannan
• 501 2nd Street
• Oakland Auditorium
• Oakland Waterfront Warehouses

• 1906 San Francisco Earthquake