The Leaning Tower of Vegas

Situated in the center of the prestigious CityCenter development, the Veer™ Towers occupy a privileged spot on the world famous Las Vegas Strip. To earn such an honored location, and the moniker ‘Veer Towers’, these twin, high-rise buildings each lean dramatically at opposing five degree angles from the vertical. The leans are the towers' defining architectural characteristic and required the sophisticated application of conventionally reinforced concrete to the structural building systems.

Concrete construction secured effective solutions to increased demands on the structural strength and rigidity due to the towers leans, while preserving the common benefits of minimized building height, energy efficiency, and overall life cycle cost. More on the Veer Towers.

Multifamily Project in Empire State Rules in Energy Conservation

In Rego Park, Queens, N.Y., The Andrew, a recently constructed 50-unit apartment building, enjoys a position of energy royalty. Insulated concrete forms (ICF) allowed the developer—The Bluestone Organization—to construct the building at the same cost as conventional construction, but the result is among the lowest energy users for multifamily in the entire state. More on the Andrew.

Precast Helps to Make the Ordinary Extraordinary

The use of precast concrete allowed the designers of MetWest One at MetWest International in Tampa, Fla., address aesthetics in an interesting, distinctive, and cost-effective manner. More on MetWest One.

Concrete Protects National Museum of Health

The National Museum of Health and Medicine, one of the first blast-resistant tilt-up buildings in the United States, is nearing completion. The sculptural 20,000 square-foot structure, designed by KlingStubbins, is innovatively framed using a combination of load-bearing masonry, cast-in-place, and tilt-up concrete walls and structural steel. The museum, which houses more than 25 million artifacts, is being relocated from its current location at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to a new facility at the Forest Glenn Annex in Silver Spring, Md. and was designed to meet the LEED™ silver criteria. More on the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Design for Security with Concrete

Buildings are designed to resist loads prescribed by building codes. These include gravity loads such as building weight and live load, wind, seismic loads and fire. Depending on the building type, configuration, and location other loads such as water pressure, snow, soil pressure, rain, and temperature effect may also need to be accounted for.

Explosive blast, whether accidentally or intentionally caused, is another force that needs to be taken into account. Blast generally results in a high-amplitude impulse loading which lasts for a very short period of time and produces high pressure loading. The loading in many situations is local in the sense that only those elements closest to the blast may be directly impacted. Elements far from the blast site may experience little or no direct impact due to sharp attenuation (dissipation) of blast energy with distance. The forces experienced by structural components depend on the size, geometry and proximity of the explosion. For decades, blast-resistant design was applied almost exclusively to military facilities. Since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, however, concern for blast resistance has spread to other sectors as well. More on designing for security.

Blast Resistant Design Guide for Reinforced Concrete Structures

This guide provides structural engineers with a practical treatment of the design of cast-in-place reinforced concrete structures to resist the effects of blast loads. Readers will be able to understand the principles of blast-resistant design, determine the kind and degree of resistance a structure needs, and specify the materials and details required to provide it.

Seismic Detailing of Concrete Buildings

Although seismic design and design for blast are different in many respects, the general intent of seismic detailing is to provide greater ductility and post-yield strength than conventional detailing. This is consistent with the blast-resistant design intent of improving toughness.

This publication contains a comprehensive summary of the seismic detailing requirements contained in Chapter 21 of Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (318-05) and Commentary (318R-05), which is adopted by reference in the 2006 International Building Code.

The new edition (ASCE 7-10) contains several editorial and technical changes regarding wind loads. Technical changes include the introduction of new wind speed maps based on strength design criteria. These wind speeds are to be used with a load factor of 1.0 for strength design also known as Ultimate Strength Design. For designers using load combinations based on service load wind speed it is required to use the previous load factor for wind loads of 1.6. The Applied Technology Council (ATC) provides a free service for engineers to find site-specific wind speed using GPS coordinate system.

2011 PCA Professors' Workshop
August 1-5, 2011

The new, combined Professors’ Workshop,is being offered August 1-5, 2011 at the PCA headquarters in Skokie, Ill. This year introduces a new format which includes tracks covering Engineering and economics of concrete buildings; Design and construction of concrete bridges by the AASHTO LRFD; Concrete materials properties; and Design, construction and performance of concrete pavements.

The Professors’ Workshop is designed to provide faculty in engineering, architecture, and construction management programs the tools to teach the latest developments in concrete design, construction, and materials. The week-long session includes networking opportunities to exchange ideas with professors from many universities.

More information on the PCA Professors’ Workshop.

Greenbuild 2011 International Conference and Expo
October 4-7, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

American Concrete Institute 2011 Fall Convention
October 16-20, Cincinnati, Ohio

Design-Build 2011 Conference & Expo
October 19-20, Orlando, Fla.

spColumn Supports Batch Mode for Faster Design

Batch mode option helps spColumn users process hundreds of sections saving project time and bypassing manual operation. Graphical report exporting feature introduced in the version 4.60 documents program batch results for quick review. A complete design summary report including interaction diagram can be generated for each section and load. spColumn supports latest U.S. and Canadian reinforced concrete design standards.

Read spColumn Manual for more details or to learn more about spColumn and to download the fully functional evaluation version click here.

More about StructurePoint’s reinforced concrete analysis and design software.