The Structural Systems oF Tall Buildings - Tall Buildings: Structural Systems and Aerodynamic Form - page 70

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 3.56

Configurations of the ground floor in the framed-tube system

The innovator of the idea of the framed-tube, the creative structural engineer
Fazlur Rahman Khan, used it for the first time in the 43-storey, 120 m high The Plaza
on Dewitt (Chicago, 1966) ( Figure 3.52 ), which has a reinforced concrete structural
system.
Some examples of tall buildings using the framed-tube system with steel structural
material include:

• the 110-storey, 415/417 m high World Trade Center Twin Towers (New York,
1972) ( Figure 3.55 )

and with reinforced concrete structural material include:

• the 33-storey, 144 m high Torre Agbar (Barcelona, 2004) ( Figure 3.57 )
• the 63-storey, 223 m high Olympia Centre (Chicago, 1986) ( Figure 3.58 )
• the 41-storey, 167 m high First Canadian Centre (Calgary, 1982) ( Figure 3.59 ).

R einforced concrete
core shear w all
(varying in thickness
40 to 25cm

R einforced concrete exterior tube
(varying in thickness 50 to 30cm
from bottom to top)

from bottom to top)

£ O V )

£
vi m

16.3m

39.4m

F lo o r 25

Figure 3.57 Torre Agbar, Barcelona, Spain, 2004
(photo on left courtesy of Niels Jakob Darger and on right courtesy of PERI Gmbh)