multi-story residential

The
Transfer
Solution By Kurt D. Swensson, Ph.D., P.E., LEED AP

Steel saves valuable space and

time in accommodating high-rise
column setbacks.

T
The Mansion on Peachtree contains many of the com-
plicating elements of typical mixed-use buildings using a stacked
configuration. The project includes a parking garage, elevated
motor court and garden, 142-key hotel, 15,000 gross sq. ft spa,
8,000 gross sq. ft banquet and meeting space, two restaurants, a bar,
three residential villas, and 41 high-rise luxury residential units.
The building is approximately 620 ft tall with a total of 46 occu-
pied levels. It uses a “wedding cake” scheme with steps in the floor
plan and column transfers at seven different floors. The design
stacks a 27-story residential building on top of a 15-story hotel
above a three-story parking deck. Only two of the columns from
the residential tower extend to the foundation, while 26 of the 38
tower columns transfer at the top of the hotel floors.
The project presented many design and construction challenges,
three of which had a significant impact on the transfer design.
1. Remove all interior columns from the hotel floors.
2. Maximize the number of saleable floors within the height limita-
tion while maintaining 12 ft, 3 in. clear height on the residential
floors.
3. Support a fast-tracked delivery process.
The combination of these requirements led to the use of struc-
tural steel transfer trusses at two of the seven transfer floors. At
these two levels, the transfers span more than 36 ft, support more
than 27 levels, and need to accommodate openings for utilities and
personnel. The use of traditional concrete beams was considered
for these conditions but was found to be unacceptable because
the resulting designs either increased the building height, limited
utilities and personnel movement, or could not accommodate the
fast track schedule.
Derek Owe

Stepping in the top 27 floors of this mixed-use high-rise required trans-

ferring the column loads from the top portion using 18 floor-depth
structural steel trusses and W40 beams.

MODERN STEEL CONSTRUCTION december 2009

 Images on this page courtesy of KSi Structural Engineers
Structural Steel Provides the Solution
As the design of the transfer elements developed, it became
obvious that structural steel was the only realistic option. The
requirement to provide openings for egress and access by person-
nel severely limited the efficiency of any concrete option. The fast
track delivery required detailed design before the final location of
utilities, which also made the use of structural steel trusses advanta-
geous. The multiple opportunities for penetrations through open-
ings in the truss web allowed the design to proceed with minimal
coordination. Further, the open web truss configuration provided
flexibility for future replacement, relocation, or addition of utilities.
The use of large concrete transfer beams would have made move-
ment of existing or placement of new utilities very difficult.
In the final design, 18 floor-depth structural steel trusses and
four wide-flange beam sections transfer 22 columns at the transfer The structural steel transfer trusses used on this project are the full height
of the level. Their open web configuration allows people and building
level. Fourteen of the trusses use a composite top chord configura- systems to pass through easily without extra coordination concerns.
tion. Two trusses transfer columns above the ballroom just below
the hotel floors.
Through the use of structural steel the column transfers were
accommodated without adding height or square footage to the
building. Space on the transfer floor was used to transfer the stairs
and the elevators, support air handling equipment, as well as data
and fire pump rooms. This integrated use of floor space allowed an
additional level to become saleable residential space with a value, at
the time of design, of approximately $4 million to $6 million.

Project Challenges
Once the decision was made to use structural steel, the chal-
lenge was to determine the most efficient way to execute the plan.
The integral teamwork of the design team, owner, contractor, fab-
ricator, connection designer, and erector was the key to the suc-
cess of the plan. The following considerations were significant in
the analysis, design, and construction of the trusses—minimizing
transfer loads, controlling deflections, and minimizing impact on
the construction schedule.

The building’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing components were

easily routed through the structural steel transfer trusses.

Floor plan, left: Only two columns from the residential tower (shown
in red) and the concrete core extend to the foundation. All other 22
of the column loads from the top 27 floors are supported at the 16th
floor by steel transfer trusses and the four W40 sections at the corners
(shown in light blue). The supporting columns and walls below are
shown as dashed brown.

Kurt Swensson is the president of

KSi Structural Engineers (www.
ksise.com), which celebrated their
10th anniversary this year and
works in their Atlanta office. Dr.
Swensson is active in AISC and
ASCE/SEI committees dealing
with Building Information Model-
ing, Seismic Design, and Methods of
Design and Analysis.

 december 2009 MODERN STEEL CONSTRUCTION

 Minimizing Transfer Loads
An effective way to reduce the size of any structural element is to
reduce the force it must resist. To this end, the structural engineer
worked with the project team to reduce loads on the transfer girders
early in the design process. A review of the tower geometry revealed that

KSi Structural Engineersdef. not

transferring particular columns on multiple levels provided significant
advantage. This plan took advantage of building steps existing in the
architectural plan on floors where transfers already were planned. The
final geometry allowed the use of more traditional transfer beams with
smaller spans reducing cost and schedule impact without increasing the
building height. The changes made reduced the load on several trusses
at lower levels by up to 60%. Without these adjustments, the transfers at
Connector plates were provided on level 16, atop the transfer truss upper lower levels would not have been economically or technically feasible.
chord, to receive loads for each of the concrete columns. In early computer analysis, it became evident that the transfer
trusses attracted significant forces from lateral loading. Therefore,

Aerial Innovations of Georgia

the trusses are de-coupled from the lateral load resisting system. One
set of outrigger walls was located just above the transfer level thus
transferring overturning loads directly to the columns. This mea-
sure isolated the trusses from significant overturning forces. Next,
the slab was isolated from the bottom chords and the bottom chords
were not extended to the supporting columns. These two measures
interrupted the load path for lateral loads through the truss webs.

Controlling Deflections
Deflection criteria were developed accounting for the three-
dimensional behavior of the floor, the relative distance between
transferred columns, distance between transferred columns and the
core, and the allowance for tile on the floors above. The resulting
target deflection values varied from 0.25 in. to 0.5 in. for spans up
to 38 ft, 6 in. Analysis indicated that shortening in the compres-
sion chord was a significant contributor to the truss deflection. To
reduce the shortening the compression chords were designed to
act compositely with the 10-in. slab placed at that level. The result-
ing design reduced the weight of the top chord of the trusses by
The slab is being formed on the south side of the tower as truss erection between 60 to 70 lb per lineal ft.
continues on the north side. Integrated steel truss erection with slab place-
ment minimized the schedule impact of on-site truss erection. The only way
to transfer the column loads resulting from stepping the building in was to Constructability
use structural steel transfer trusses that are the full depth of the floor. Two major challenges shaped the construction of the trans-
fer system. The first was crane capacity, which was based on the
KSi Structural Engineers

requirements of the project’s concrete slab and precast panel place-

ment. The tight urban site would not allow the use of additional
mobile cranes. Increasing the tower crane capacity for the several
weeks needed to erect the trusses would have added $500,000 to
the project cost. So the trusses were erected in pieces each weigh-
ing less than 22,000 lb.
The second challenge was to minimize the truss erection time.
To accomplish this, steel truss erection was woven into a cast-in-
place concrete flat slab building schedule. This required coordina-
tion of concrete shoring, placement and finishing around the in-
place structural steel erection and assembly of the trusses.
Planning for the installation process began four months prior to
truss installation, while design was still in progress. The coordina-
tion sessions included the general contractor, steel fabricator, steel
erector, and the formwork subcontractor as well as the structural
engineer. The result was the following process.

1. Place columns/walls to bottom chord level.

To keep from having to use a larger crane, the transfer trusses were lifted 2. Set bottom chord with connection plates and independent shor-
into place in pieces each weighing 22,000 lb or less, which were then ing system.
bolted together using 14,200 high-strength bolts (in addition to the 5,700 3. Build slab formwork and shore.
used in the shop).
4. Place slab at bottom chord level.

MODERN STEEL CONSTRUCTION december 2009

5. Place columns/walls to top chord bearing.
6. Set web elements/top chord.
7. Begin final bolting/welding of web
members while forming top chord slab.
8. Place top chord concrete slab.
9. Complete bolting/welding while placing
shoring/formwork for next level slab.
10. Remove shoring after bolting/welding
completed.

Erection of the 18 transfer level trusses

took six weeks during which three floor
slabs were placed. When compared to a
standard floor construction schedule, the
truss erection added four weeks to the proj-
ect schedule. However, when compared to
the alternative—construction of large con-
crete transfer girders and the additional
area that would have been required for a
separate mechanical level—the impact of
the trusses on the schedule was minimal.
In the final design the weight of the
typical truss, without connection material, is
approximately 600 lb per lineal ft. The larg-
est truss spans approximately 39 ft, is approx-
imately 15 ft deep, and weighs 1,343 lb per
lineal ft. The truss supports two columns as
well as reactions from three other transfer
trusses. The total calculated load transferred
by this truss is approximately 4,700 kips. In
total, the structural steel system used to
transfer columns included 165 structural
steel pieces weighing 410 tons. The system
utilized 19,900 high-strength bolts. Of those,
5,700 were shop bolted and 14,200 were
field bolted. The approximate cost of the
steel transfer system was $2 million, which
resulted in an increase of saleable residential
area with an estimated value of $4 million to
$6 million. Not only was there a solution in
steel, it also was a good investment.
Architect of Record
Milton Pate Architects, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.
Structural Engineer of Record
KSi Structural Engineers, Atlanta, Ga.
Steel Fabricator
Steel LLC, Scottdale, Ga. (AISC Member)
Steel Detailer
Engle & Associates Detailing, Inc.,
Birmingham, Ala. (AISC and NISD
Member)
Connection Designer
Ferrell Engineering, Inc., Birmingham Ala.
(AISC Member)
Steel Erector
Williams Erection Company, Inc.,
Smyrna, Ga. (AISC, TAUC and IMPACT
Member)
Software Used
RAM Advance
 december 2009 MODERN STEEL CONSTRUCTION