EGN-5439 The Design of Tall Buildings Lecture 01

Why Tall Buildings?

L. A. Prieto-Portar 2008

Humans have always admired tall structures since ancient times because of their social status: they are visible to all. Their builders were held in the highest respect of their societies, and their structures are the subjects of legends:

The early tall buildings:

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

The Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Mausoleum at Halycarnasus

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Colossus of Rhodes

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The Great Pyramids of Egypt

So, in todays world, what is a Tall Building?

Tallness is a relative term. However, for us structural engineers, a tall building is one that is primarily affected by lateral forces from wind and earthquakes. Modern tall buildings were born in 1885 with the first all metal structure of the Home Insurance Building in Chicago. The demand for tall buildings has almost exclusively been for commercial and residential use. Tall commercial buildings have served as prestige symbols for corporations (the Woolworth and Chrysler buildings, Trump Towers, etc.). In Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro housing is usually 40-story towers spaced only a few meters of each other. The increasing growth of the tourist industry demands taller hotels in city centers where land is scarce and expensive.

The famous architect Louis Sullivan coined the phrase that in buildings, form follows function. Perhaps a better phrase that applies to skyscrapers came from Case Gilbert in 1900 (he was the designer of the Woolworth Tower in 1913, the Worlds first skyscraper). Gilbert said: A skyscraper is a machine that makes the land pay. Gilberts assertion is evident in the figure on the left, taken from a real estate publication of 1903. It shows the prices of land values in Lower Manhattan that same year. Practically every firm in New York wanted to be located within a few hundred feet within the tight canyons of Broadway and Wall Street. Notice the contrast of the prices within a few hundred feet (from $400/sf to only $10/sf).

The Timeline of Structural Growth

Ancient Rome
Seven-storey wooden tenement buildings of timber and masonry construction. After the great fire of Nero, new brick and concrete materials were used in the form of arch and barrel vault structures. Masonry and timber the two leading materials for the next eighteen centuries.

Chicago
1891 16-story Monadnock Building reaches the limits of masonry with 2 m thick walls. 1885 11-story Home Insurance Building, the first high-rise totally supported by a metal frame (wrought iron). 1889 9-story Rand-McNally Building, first all steel frame high-rise. 1891 20-story Masonic Temple, diagonal bracings introduced in the faade frames to form vertical trusses.

New York
1913 60-story Woolworth Building (considered the worlds first skyscraper). 1931 102-story Empire State Building (1,250 ft tall). The golden age of American skyscraper construction ended with the depression of the 1930s. It was not until several years after WW II that skyscraper construction recommenced. Instead of increases in height, modern developments brought new structural systems, improved material qualities, and better design and construction techniques. It was not until 1970 that the Empire State Building was eclipsed by the 110-story WTC North Tower (1,353 ft), and then in 1974 by the Sears Tower (1,450 ft).

The Timeline for the Growth of Tall Buildings

Growth in height between 1850 and 2005

140 N o . o f s t o rie s in t a lle s t b u ild in g 120
First wrought iron rolled sections First steel rolled section World Trade Center North (110) Sears Tower (110) Jin Mao Tower (88)

New York era

100 80 60
Otis elevator Cast iron era New York

Empire State Building (102)

Petronas Tower (88)

Woolworth Building(60) JP Morgan Chase Tower (75) US Bank Tower (73)

40 20 0 1850

Chicago School Masonic Temple (21) Harper & Brothers (5)

Two Finance Towers (88)

Electric elevator Home Insurance Building (10)

1870

1890

1910

1930 Year

1950

1970

1990

2010

Growth in height between 1850 and 2005

2000 1800 1600 1400
H e i g h t (fe e t)
First steel rolled section Petronas Tower (1483) New York era Jin Mao Tower (1380) Sears Tower (1450) Empire State Building (1252) Cast iron era New York Otis elevator Woolworth Building (761) Chicago School Masonic Temple (302) Harper & Brothers JP Morgan Chase Tower (1002) US Bank Tower (1018) Two Finance Towers (1362) World Trade Center North (1353) Taipei Tower (1667)

First wrought iron rolled sections

1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 1850 1870

Electric elevator

Home Insurance Building (138)

1890

1910

1930
Years

1950

1970

1990

2010

Growth in height of tall buildings (from 1885 to present).

A projection of all the building planned and under design versus existing tallest.

World Population Growth

The Design Process

The (Iterative) Design Process

START Commence with a functional design (eg, column layout) Preliminary calculations to establish member sizes (typically gravity only x 1.3) Propose preliminary x-sections
of all vertical m em bers

(columns and shear walls)

Propose prelim. beams and slabs based on M and V via the 2-cycle moment distribution or using midand end-span values

Review and coordinate all documents with the Architect, and HVAC, plumbing and electrical specialty engineers

Prepare final construction documentation: - CAD drawing set - Specifications - Engineer's cost estimate

Check the drift index = /H 0.0015

yes Finalize documents for permitting and clarify comments Check creep and shrinkage effects

Is the drift index excessive?

no

Try to get paid

Perform wind tunnel tests and refine design

Check forces in major structural members with rapid approximation analysis

FINISH

Perform a dynam ic analys is for wind and s eis m ic loads

yes Add 2nd-order gravity loads on lateral deflections (P- ) no Prepare the final accurate design with a refined model yes
Are there changes to the plans by the Architect or the Ow ner?

Are Forces excessive? no

Finalize the satisfactory preliminary design

START

Site visit

Get geotechnical report, Site survey and As-Builts

Conceptual design and evaluation (eg. Column layout)

Preliminary calculations to establish member sizes (typically gravity only x 1.3)

Propose preliminary xsections of all vertical members (columns and shear wall)

Prepare final construction documentation: -CAD drawing set -Specifications -Engineers cost estimate Review and coordinate all documents with the Architect, HVAC, plumbing and electrical specialty engineers

Perform wind tunnel tests and refine design

Proposed preliminary beams and slabs based on M and V via the 2-cycle moment distribution or using mid and end-span values
Check the drift index = ?/H = 0.0015

Perform a dynamic analysis for wind seismic loads

Add 2nd-order gravity loads on lateral deflections (P-?)

yes

Is the drift index excessive no

Finalize documents for permitting and clarify comments

Prepare the final accurate design with a refined model no yes Are there changes to the plans by the Architect or the Owner? Finalize the satisfactory preliminary design

Remind the Client to send the check for payment

Check forces in major structural members with rapid approximation analysis

yes Are Forces excessive

FINISH

no

Alternate design flow chart.

How should we approach new structural methods?

The evolution of new structural systems

Structural systems for residential and office buildings have evolved to reflect their differing functional requirements.

Office Tall Buildings:

The need to satisfy differing requirements of tenants leads to the provision of large column-free open areas to allow flexibility in constantly changing office layouts. Improved levels of services frequently necessitate an entire floor devoted to mechanical plant. However, this lost space can often be compensated by accommodating deep girders or trusses connecting the exterior and interior structural systems. Earlier heavy internal partitions and masonry cladding, with their contributions to the reserve of stiffness and strength, have given way to light removable partitions and cubicles and glass curtain walls, forcing the basic structure alone to provide the required strength and stiffness against both vertical and lateral loads. Large entrances and open lobby areas at ground level, multi-storey atriums, and high-level restaurants and viewing galleries may require more sophisticated elevator systems and multiple sky lobbies.

Office buildings need large open spaces for flexible rental arrangements.

Chevron or K-braces can used to stiffen the structure at mechanical levels.

The Espiritu Sanctus building at Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami.

 Residential Tall Buildings:

The basic function is the provision of self-contained individual dwelling units, separated by substantial partitions that provide adequate fire and acoustical insulation. Because the partitions are repeated from story to story, modern designs have utilised them in a structural capacity. This has led to the shear wall, cross wall, and infilled-frame methods of construction.

Residential buildings are heavier and many partitions separating each apartment.

A 17-story condominium in Naples, Florida.

 The principal load resisting elements.

The two primary types of vertical load resisting elements of tall buildings are columns and walls. Walls may act either independently as shear walls, or in assemblies as shear wall cores, around stairwells and elevators. Columns will be provided in otherwise unsupported regions to transmit gravity loads, and in some types of structures, lateral loads (wind and seismic). Since the gravity loading on different floors tends to be similar, the weight of the floor system per unit floor area is constant, regardless of building height. Since the load on a column is cumulative of the floors above it, the weight of column per unit area increases linearly with the building height. The bending moments caused by lateral loads increase with at least the square of building height, becoming more important as building height increases.

Typical steel quantity requirements versus the buildings height

Steel Weight Per Unit Area of Building

Wind Steel

Column Steel Floor Framing Steel Height of Building

References
Monograph on Planning and Design of Tall Buildings, Volumes CB, CL, PC, SB and SC, ASCE, 1980. 1. www.greatbuildings.com 2. www.engr.psu.edu/ae/wtctragedy.html 3. www.kaleidagraph.com/teach.htm

Sweet Williams