Complex building in Washington

Rainier Square Tower (Seattle, Washington) by SounderBruce, License CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)

John Hopkins University – United States

Building use

Complex building

Country/Region

United States

Overview

Concrete-filled, composite-plate steel shear wall (CF-CPSW) panels were adopted to achieve speed to create a high-rise structural core quickly and cost-effectively.

Basic information (construction date, number of stories, gross floor area, adopted design code, engineer(s), Contractor(s), etc.)

Construction date: 2020
Number of stories: 58
Gross floor area: 120,000m2
Adopted design code: Seattle Building Code 2018; AISC 341-16
Engineer(s): Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Contractor(s): Wright Runstad

Issue and/or innovation

In tall buildings with reinforced concrete (RC) core walls, steel gravity framing, and composite steel deck floors, the schedule critical aspect is the construction of the RC core walls, because the RC walls progress at a much slower pace than the rest of the structure. The innovation here is in using a lateral force–resisting system with concrete-filled, composite-plate steel shear wall (CF-CPSW). The use of the composite plate steel walls leads to the elimination of formwork, rebar cages, and falsework. This system also lends itself to prefabrication and modularization, which can further speed the construction.

Reason for composite solution

To achieve speed to create a high-rise structural core quickly and cost-effectively.
To serve as a proof-of-concept for Speed-Core, a structural steel system using modular, prefabricated, concrete-filled, composite-plate steel shear wall (CF-CPSW).

Specific solution/technical details

Concrete-filled, composite-plate steel shear wall (CF-CPSW) panels

Impact or effectiveness

The Speed-Core approach shortened the original 32-month construction schedule by ten months versus using a traditional core system (reference: https://www.aisc.org/awards-and-competitions/ideas2-awards/ideas2-awards-archives/rainier-square/)

References / Technical Papers Content

Broberg, M., Shafaei, S., Kizilarslan, E., Seo, J., Varma, A. H., Bruneau, M., & Klemencic, R. (2022). Capacity design of coupled composite plate shear wall–concrete-filled system. Journal of Structural Engineering, 148(4), 04022022.
https://www.aisc.org/Design-Guide-38-SpeedCore-Systems-for-Steel-Structures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZVNHlWixhg
https://www.pankowfoundation.org/our-work/case-studies/speedcore-rethinking-how-high-rise-buildings-are-designed-and-built/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjonImN71lM

Supplementary documents

Supplementary document - 1

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