Maja Sagaser

Ms. Sagaser consults on projects requiring architectural engineering, structural engineering, and construction expertise. She specializes in analyzing issues relating to construction defects such as weatherproofing, building envelope performance, fenestration leakage, and structural failures. 

Ms. Sagaser has evaluated building damage due to moisture from various sources including vapor drive and water intrusion, as well as damages resulting from earth movement. She also has experience in designing with concrete, steel, timber, and masonry materials as well as evaluating the associated biological, physical, and chemical degradation mechanisms of those materials.

Ms. Sagaser has been involved in engineering projects globally, working in underprivileged and natural hazard prone communities. She has worked on post-disaster damage assessment in Kathmandu, Nepal following the 2015 Gorkha earthquake. In Nepal she observed settlement and earthquake damage and worked alongside other engineers to propose retrofit solutions aimed to increase the resilience of structures. Ms. Sagaser also has design and construction experience in Tanzania. While there, she worked with local builders to help construct a steel pedestrian bridge serving the Majevu Primary school in Same, Tanzania. Ms. Sagaser obtained a Certificate in Global Engineering from the University of Colorado-Boulder during which she studied international disaster relief and other forms of foreign aid.

Ms. Sagaser's graduate research focused on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), during which she evaluated embodied and operational carbon associated with the manufacturing of materials, construction process, building use/operation, and building end-of-life. She has performed a whole building LCA for a City of Boulder municipal facility, to determine the embodied carbon impacts of adaptive reuse projects. She has familiarity with Revit software and the LCA plug-in, Tally, both of which she has used to perform whole building LCAs. She continues to have an interest in contributing to the development and implementation of low carbon solutions for the building industry.