Our 60th Anniversary: Finding GZA's Founders in Surprising Places

In 2024, GZA is celebrating 60 years of being known for excellence and built on trust. And one of the unexpected places that excellence can be found is in a text geotechnical professionals use almost every day.

“When I first came to GZA, I was handed this,” says Cassandra Wetzel, the head of our Manhattan office. She picks up a well-worn black binder and flips through it, continuing, “And I thought, what is this?” Then a set of names in the references caught her eye: Goldberg, Jaworski, and Gordon, a founder and two key early associates of GZA. 

The binder held a copy of the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Design Manual 7.02, Foundations and Earth Structures. Written to distill over 40 years of research and knowledge into an accessible reference text for Navy engineers and first published in 1982, it’s considered one of the key reference tools for any geotechnical engineer, particularly for preliminary design guidance.

GZA was asked to be part of the design manual thanks to a three-volume work commissioned for the Department of Transportation, Lateral Support Systems and Underpinning. Written in 1976, the three volumes offer a detailed review of “cut-and-cover” tunneling techniques, starting with a reference guide. These works are still being cited in modern geotechnical research papers from around the globe.

“I refer to this almost every day on projects,” Cassandra says. “And I give a copy to new PMs when they start here.” She also makes a point of highlighting that GZA was a part of such an essential document. “It’s a way to emphasize the quality of work and the tradition we’re carrying on for the next sixty years.”