Multi-disciplinary engineering firm Buro Happold is providing structural engineering services for the Beach and Howe mixed-use tower in Vancouver. Buro Happold is design engineer, working in collaboration with local engineer of record, Glotman Simpson.
The structure meets the challenge of stabilizing a tall building whose mass is at its top – and making it safe in a high seismic zone. The 49-story building, designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, combines 653,890-sf of residential, retail, and commercial space in an urban complex at the entrance to the Granville Street Bridge.
Typically, the mass of a building is at its base. In response to the constricted urban site, the mass of the Beach and Howe tower is inverted. The tower’s small triangular base curves away from the bridge to allow light and air to enter lower apartments. As it rises, the building’s shape transforms into larger, rectangular floorplates that culminate in a square top. The designers describe the tower’s shape “as a curtain being drawn aside, welcoming people as they enter the city from the bridge.”
Buro Happold designed a concrete core with post-tensioned walls, which can protect against damage in case of an earthquake and also improve performance. This creative solution meets the tower’s structural and seismic requirements. BD+C
Related Stories
| May 25, 2011
Low Impact Development: Managing Stormwater Runoff
Earn 1.0 AIA/CES HSW/SD learning units by studying this article and successfully passing the online exam.
| May 25, 2011
Register today for BD+C’s June 8th webinar on restoration and reconstruction projects
Based on new and award-winning building projects, this webinar presents our “expert faculty” to examine the key issues affecting project owners, designers and contractors in case studies ranging from gut renovations and adaptive reuses to restorations and retrofits.
