This document discusses different types of vertical structural systems used in tall buildings. It provides examples of bearing wall/pier structures like the Monadnock Building and Pirelli Tower. Core/cantilever structures are discussed along with examples like the Standard Bank of Johannesburg. Rigid frame structures are also summarized. The document then covers core and frame systems, core and frame structures with examples of different core positions, and trussed frame structures with buildings like the Alcoa Building. Tall building structural concepts developed by Khan and Goldsmith are briefly described. Different structural systems are classified by Khan. Design issues for tall buildings related to structural system selection, formal considerations, and aesthetic debates are listed at the end.

1. arc5410 Advanced Structure and Construction

2. 3.0 Vertical Structural Systems Pt. 3

3. Types of vertical structural systems

4. The Monadnock Building Pirelli Tower Commerzbank
Bearing wall / pier structures

5. Pirelli Building Gio Ponti with P.L. Nervi Milan, Italy 1960

6. Mixed Use Tower Frank Lloyd Wright Bartlesville , Oklahoma 1952
Core / cantilever structures

7. Administration Building, Johnson & Johnson Co. F. L. Wright Racine, Wisconsin 1939

9. Standard Bank of Johannesburg, S. Africa 1970
Example of tall building with a core tree structure: floors are suspended from cantilevered arms in groups of ten floors.

10. Lake Shore Apartments (steel) Stanhope Building (reinforced concrete)
Rigid frame structures

11. A rigid or semi-rigid frame will deform under lateral loads in two ways: a) cantilever bending and b) shear sway distortion
The combination of these represents the actual behavior of the frame structure.
Stiffening the frame with x-bracing, for example, will cause more cantilever bending and less shear sway

12. Core and frame systems provide adequate stiffness up to 30-40 stories. Generally cores are at the center of the building, both for
practical reasons (daylight) and to resist shear forces more effectively. If not centered, they are usually symmetrically located.
Core and frame structures

13. Examples of tall buildings with cores in various positions. From left to right: Knights of Columbus Building (core at four corners),
Inland Steel (core on one side), PSFS (core on one side), and Jardin House (central core)

14. Trussed frame structures
Alcoa Building, San Francisco Int’l Financial Ctr, Shenyang Hotel, Barcelona Hearst Building, NYC

15. First Wisconsin Center Skidmore Owings & Merrill Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1974
An example of a steel frame with a belt truss and outrigger system at the 15th and 41st floors, and a transfer truss at the
3rd level. Note that the outrigger trusses are in the direction of the wind only indicating that wind resistance in the longi-
tudinal direction is provided only by the stiffness of the frame.
Diagrams illustrate the effect of belt truss and outriggers in stiffening a core-frame structure. On
the right, the bending moment decreases in response to increasing stiffness provided by the belt trusses.

17. The research on tall buildings at IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) under Mies van der Rohe and Fazlur Khan of SOM led to new
concepts on how tall buildings might efficiently resist lateral forces. Myron Goldsmith’s thesis project proposes a super structural
frame, detached from the envelope, and capable of resisting all the lateral forces at the perimeter of the building where it can do so
more effectively.
Myron Goldsmith Superframe 80+ story high rise

18. The Chestnut-Dewitt apartment building (Chicago, 1961-65) and the Brunswick Building (Chicago,
1962-66) were the starting points for Fazlur Khan and SOM’s application of the concept of a framed
tube structure for high rise buildings.
Chestnut-Dewitt Apartment Building Brunswick Building
framed tube tube in tube

19. One Shell Plaza Skidmore Owings & Merrill Houston, Texas 1971
52 story office block “tube in tube” structural type. All lightweight concrete. Matt foundation.

20. Alcoa Building (Truss frame) Skidmore Owings & Merrill San Francisco, CA ca 1965

22. Effect of increasing building height on weight of structure per unit area.

23. Effect of perimeter trussing to stiffen structure. John Hancock Building, Chicago, USA

24. John Hancock Center SOM / Bruce Graham / Fazlur Khan Chicago 1970

27. Office level floors 26 - 33
Street level

28. Apartment level floors 82 - 92
Sky Lobby floor 44

40. Sears Tower (Sears & Roebuck Co.) Skidmore Owings & Merrill Chicago, IL 1974
109 stories. Bundled tube structural concept. Height to width ratio 6.4.

42. Fazlur Khan’s structural systems classification
Type 1 Shear Frames: semi-rigid and rigid
Type 2 Interacting Systems: frame with shear truss, frame with shear belt & outrigger trusses
Type 3 Partial Tubular Systems: end channel frame with interior shear trusses
Type 4 Tubular Systems: exterior framed tube, bundled frame tube, exterior diagonalized tube

49. “There is more fun than anything else in doing a more elegant solution for an ordinary 75-
story building. We have a long way to go to make the skyscraper what it really can be, and it
doesn’t have to be super-tall to do this. There are ways to open up space, to make it more
economical and to face the problems of fire and transportation and pedestrian joy at the
bottom. These are much more interesting problems.”
William LeMessurier
Engineering News Record November 3, 1983

50. Citicorp Center Hugh Stubbins / Wm. Lemessurier New York City 1977

51. The base of the CitiCorp Center Tower has only a central concrete lift core and four mega-columns coming down to the ground. This
creates an open through-block site that has been filled with public space, retail shops and a reconstructed church (St. Peter’s
Lutheran) seen in the left foreground of the photo.

52. Engineer William LeMessurier designed the structure of the CitiCorp Tower as a braced perimeter frame with long diagonals on the
facades in a chevron pattern (eight floors high) collecting and transferring the floor loads to the center of each face where the mega-
columns below are located. These façade trusses collect about 1/2 of the gravity loads and resist the entire wind loads on the
building. At the base of the tower, where the chevrons end, a diagonally braced transfer floor is required to transfer the wind shear
(resisted by the chevron trusses) to the central concrete core.

53. In the typical floor framing beams run in one direction, girders in the other.
Diagonals at the corners are required for stiffening due to the unique chevron
vertical structure. Note the doubling of columns at the midpoints of the sides to
carry the concentrated vertical loading transferred by the chevrons. The core
above the base is steel framed. Below it is reinforced concrete.

54. The tuned mass dampening system of the CitiCorp Tower.

55. Bank of the Southwest Helmut Jahn and Wm LeMessurier Houston, Texas 1982
Comparison of types of building structures based on
the bending rigidity index (BRI).
See Ch.2 Tower and Office p.80

56. IFC2 Rocco Yim, Cesar Pelli Hong Kong 2002

59. Design Issues Tall Buildings
• Structural system selection: for a given height, certain systems will be more efficient.
shear frames and core structures: 0 - 30 floors
truss-frames: up to 40 floors
modified shear frames (belt-outrigger systems) and partial tubes: 50 - 100 floors
pure cantilever tubes and mega-structures: > 100 floors
• Formal considerations
core centered versus displaced cores (Hancock vs. HSBC)
orthogonal straight or stepped profile versus tapered profiles (Hancock versus Sears)
self-contained enclosure versus interior voids (Hancock versus National Commercial Bank of Jeddah)
• Aesthetic debate: image and expression
pure structural expression based on efficiency and economy (Hancock/SOM: Graham-Khan)
structural expressionism or hi-tech image (HSBC/Norman Foster)
post-modern design: historical expression (AT&T/Philip Johnson)
contextural hi-rise design: formal urban context (333 Wacker/KPF)
sustainable or “green” design: expression of energy saving/efficiency (World Trade Towers/Atkins)