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 today’s 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 World’s first
“skyscraper”). Gilbert said: “A skyscraper is
a machine that makes the land pay.”

Gilbert’s 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 façade frames to form
vertical trusses.
• New York
– 1913 60-story Woolworth Building (considered the world’s 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

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

(88)
Empire State Building (102)
100
Petronas Tower (88)
80 Cast iron era
New York
Two
60 Woolworth Building(60)
Finance
Otis elevator Towers
JP Morgan Chase (88)
40 Chicago
Tower (75)
School

20 Masonic Temple (21) US Bank

Electric elevator Tower
Home Insurance (73)
Harper &
0 Brothers (5)
Building (10)
1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010
Year
 Growth in height between 1850 and 2005

2000
First First Petronas Tower (1483) Taipei Tower
wrought steel (1667)
1800 iron rolled rolled New York era Jin Mao Tower (1380)
sections section
1600
Sears Tower (1450)
1400 World Trade Center
Empire State Building (1252) North (1353)
1200
H e i g h t (fe e t)

Cast iron era

1000 New York Two
Finance
800 Woolworth Building (761) Towers
Otis elevator (1362)
600 Chicago JP Morgan Chase
School Tower (1002)
400
Masonic Temple (302) US Bank
Electric elevator Tower
200 (1018)
Home Insurance Building (138)
Harper & Brothers
0
1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010
Years
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

Commence with a Preliminary calculations to Propose preliminary x-sections Propose prelim. beams and slabs
START functional design establish member sizes of all vertical m em bers based on M and V via the 2-cycle
(eg, column layout) (typically gravity only x 1.3) (columns and shear walls) moment distribution or using mid-
and end-span values

Review and coordinate Prepare final construction

all documents with the documentation: Check the drift index = /H 0.0015
Architect, and HVAC, - CAD drawing set
plumbing and electrical - Specifications
specialty engineers - Engineer's cost estimate
yes Is the drift
index
Finalize documents Check creep and excessive?
for permitting and shrinkage effects no
clarify comments

Perform wind tunnel tests Check forces in major structural

Try to get paid and refine design members with rapid approximation
analysis

FINISH Perform a dynam ic analys is

for wind and s eis m ic loads
yes Are Forces
excessive?
Add 2nd-order gravity loads yes
on lateral deflections (P- ) no

no Are there
changes to the
Prepare the final accurate Finalize the satisfactory
plans by the
design with a refined model Architect or the preliminary design
Ow ner?
 Get Conceptual design Preliminary calculations to Propose preliminary x-
START Site visit geotechnical establish member sizes sections of all vertical
and evaluation
report, Site (eg. Column layout) (typically gravity only x 1.3) members (columns
survey and and shear wall)
As-Builts

Proposed preliminary
Prepare final construction
beams and slabs based
documentation:
Perform wind tunnel on M and V via the 2-cycle
-CAD drawing set
tests and refine design moment distribution or
-Specifications
using mid and end-span
-Engineer’s cost estimate values

Perform a dynamic
Review and Check the drift index = ?/H = 0.0015
analysis for wind
coordinate all seismic loads
documents with the
Architect, HVAC,
plumbing and Add 2nd-order gravity yes Is the drift
electrical specialty loads on lateral index
engineers deflections (P-?) excessive
no

Finalize documents for

Prepare the final
permitting and clarify
accurate design with a Check forces in major
comments
refined model structural members with
rapid approximation
Remind the Client to analysis
no
send the check for
payment yes
yes
Are there
changes to the
Finalize the satisfactory Are Forces
FINISH plans by the
preliminary design excessive
Architect or the no
Owner?

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.
Steel Weight Per Unit Area of Building Typical steel quantity requirements versus the building’s height

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