DESIGN OF TRANSBAY TOWER / SALESFORCE TOWER, SAN FRANCISCO

Intro
When completed in 2017, it will be the tallest building in San Francisco at a height of 1070
feet. This super tall building is considered to be the most sophisticated and exceptionally hard
to construct which a new design and analysis method is implemented to improve the
performance of this project.
New Benchmarks in Seismic Safety
Given the size of the tower, the estimation number of occupants in the building is a over the
building code threshold of 5000 people, which is under occupancy category III. The category
III building require additional safety for the wind and seismic loadings, thus causing new
challenges for the engineering team. Traditional structural design methods used an enhanced
strength approach when aiming to improve the seismic and performance. Although this
approach is considered to be easy to implement, it fails to ensure enhanced building
performance when subjected to extreme seismic ground shacking.
Therefore, a meticulous Performance Based Seismic Design (PBSD) approach was
implemented. The PBSD approach allowed for quality, and control of the desired building
performance at an enhanced level compared to other commercial office building. PBSD uses
sophisticated nonlinear seismic time-history computer modelling to examine building
performance during multiple predicted seismic events. Thus, PBSD allow engineers to
analyse complex and unique building desired performance. The design team targeted a
reduction to 6% (from 10%) of the probability of collapse under a Maximum Considered
Earthquake (MCE) ground shaking. This is consistent with ASCE 7 Commentary related to
Occupancy Category III buildings.
Structural system

The structural system features a gravity load-resisting system with structural steel columns
and floor framing supporting steel composite deck. The building’s seismic force-resisting
system comprises special reinforced concrete shear walls, 24 to 48 inches thick, at the central
elevator and stair core.

Foundation System
The Tower site is underlain with a complex soil strata including fill, sand, San Francisco’s
“old bay clay,” and weak bedrock. These geotechnical conditions are subject to potential
liquefaction, lateral spreading, excessive settlement, and inadequate foundation support.
Given the poor soils and the sheer weight of Salesforce Tower, supporting the building on
anything but bedrock was not feasible. Therefore, a piled – mat was implemented.
The final foundation configuration for Salesforce Tower includes 42 LBEs interconnected by
a thick mat foundation to enforce compatibility. The mat varies in thickness from 14 feet at
the core to 5 feet at the perimeter. LBEs extend into the underlying Franciscan bedrock, some
reaching more than 310 feet below existing grade with rock-sockets of up to 70 feet. 
Harvard center for green building & cities inaugural lecture Norman foster.
On his talk, he first began with the colour of the green represent the people awareness on the
environment when he stated green is a shorthand for environmental awareness. he mentioned
that the green agenda should not be done after completion the project just like what he
mentioned like the magic powder could sprinkler on the project afterward or like sticking to
the windmill on top like retrofitted right after completion of the project. This environment
awareness should be in the core checklist among with site, culture, social agenda, structure,
time and money before initiate any particular project. you can think of green agenda like a
thread among many threads (other attributes) to form a wire (project).

Next, he talked about the sequences of the green movement which started 50 years ago,
which also happen to be the founding of his practice in 1960s. the first would be the intuitive
awareness. He was very intrigue with this book called silent awareness by Rachel Carson
which convey the message of fragility of the planet, the whole Earth Catalogue and the
Buckminster fuller which practice on the importance of the awareness on the environment in
the building.

Second would be the qualify awareness. There are 28 different green building rating systems
used in the world today. The earliest was BREEAM which was introduce by the British but
the one which penetrated and suitable around the globe would be the LEED by United States.
In order to maintain a high rating of this system, the designer would score high mark
according to the categories in the rating system. For such in LEED’s categories would be the
location & transportation, Energy & Atmosphere, Indoor Environment Quality, water
efficiency, sustainable site and materials &resources. All of this need to be taken care of
during the design stage in order to achieve the high rating.

And third would be the holistic awareness. The ability to conduct the project in the fullest
capability while maintaining the environment aspect during the project durations. In his talk,
he discussed several projects, including the winner of the 2015 Norman Foster Solar Prize
Winner; early projects such as his Hong Kong and Beijing airports, the project of the
Bloomberg building in London, the Apple Campus 2 in Cupertino, California, the Masdar
City development in Abu Dhabi, an investigative approach to 3D printing to create lunar
dwellings, and a drone port in Rwanda.
Load Path! The most common source of engineering.

the problem of structural failure can be cause by several factors such as the materials used
during construction, the handling of the construction by the workers and also not to be forget,
the human error during construction or even before. Yes, I’m talking about during the design
stage. Particularly on the load path proven based on the talk by Carol Drucker. Who knew the
load path which is consider to be the fundamental of every engineer to be the most common
source of engineering? In her talk, she talked about several topic regarding to the load path on
the structure mainly on the steel structures.
Fundamental
the load on the structure should be transferred through the structure to the foundations and all
the way to the foundations where the load spread to the ground. The need to be continuous
complete load path between each element in the structures and to make sure that each
element contains sufficient strength and stiffness in order to cater the load along the path.
There are several loads on the structure mainly the dead and live load. However, there are
other several loads which represent its own purpose for causing the load to the structure such
as roof load due to snow, wind or earthquake, thermal, soil and ice load. All these loads need
to be taken account during the design stage.
Gravity & Lateral System
Gravity system is a system which cater the load in axial direction. The loading which acting
on the gravity path are dead load, live load and roof load. Lateral system however is a system
which cater the load in lateral direction which is the side direction of the structure. The
loading which acting on the lateral path are wind load and seismic load. in this part especially
the transfer load. the team effort who will be responsible. The reason behind this as its is
highly dependant on the diaphragm strength, dependant on actual load combinations,
dependant on special project requirements and need a complete load path. These all
requirement is only known by the designer’s team effort.
Connections
“A connection is critical for complete the load path” stated by Carol Drucker. A continuous
load path is as strong as its weakest link. Fine line between load path and equilibriums for
connections. She continues her talk about the important to understand importance of the
connection in the load path. She further her talk on the connection in trusses, truss end
connections, welded truss and bracing.
In bracing, there are two different bracing method which are UFM and KISS method. Each
method is usable to conduct to their own purposes. UFM method is consider cost effective
since most of the designer highly recommended compare to kiss method. the KISS method
though seems complicated but the design would be easier while the UFM method is the other
way around.