Dive summary:

• The recently topped-out Martin Apartments are, says engineer Cary Kopczynski of Bellevue, Wash., the proof he has been seeking that beams of steel-reinforced concrete can be used to strengthen shear walls and greatly reduce the amount of rebar normally called for and the headaches of trying to make it all fit.
• The problem is meeting code in seismic zones has been trying to marry horizontal rebar with x-shaped bars also required in the same walls.
• Brian Foster, who managed the project for Exxel Pacific General Contractors, says Kopczynski's technique saves labor and time,and he would readily use it again.

From the article:

"This unties the Gordian knot in seismic link beams, which have [bedeviled] contractors for years," says Cary Kopczynski....