The Rational Optimization and Evolution of the Structural Diagonal Aesthetic in Super-Tall Towers

Abstract

In the design of super-tall towers, engineers often find the conventional frame systems used in countless buildings in the past decades incapable of providing the required form, performance and constructability demanded by super-tall heights. The strength of the diagrid as a structural system in high-rise towers is the total flexibility it affords the designer as an adaptable, efficient and buildable scheme. Using fundamental engineering principles combined with modern computational tools, designers can take minimum load path forms to create rationalized diagrid geometries to create optimized, highly efficient towers. The use of diagrid frames at SOM has evolved as a structural typology beginning with the large braced frames on the John Hancock Center and continued in modern applications proving to be a powerful system in meeting the demands of supertall buildings.