Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

TALL BUILDINGS
It is difficult to distinguish the characteristics of a
building which categorize it as tall.
The outward appearance of tallness is a relative
matter.
In a typical single-storey area, a five story building
will appear tall.
In large cities, a structure must pierce the sky
around 70 to 100 stories if it is to appear tall in
comparison with its immediate neighbors.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Elphinstone Place

Atlanta20

Burj Dubai

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Taiwan_Taipei--101-Building

Empire State Building

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Tall building cannot be defined in specific terms

related to height or number of floors.
There is no consensus on what constitutes a tall
building or at what magic height, number of
stories, or proportion a building can be called
tall.
Perhaps the dividing line should be drawn
where the design of the structure moves from
the field of statics into the field of structural
dynamics.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

From the structural point of view, a building is

considered as tall when its structural analyses and
design are affected by the lateral loads,
particularly sway caused by such loads.
In contrast to vertical load, lateral load effects on
buildings are quite variable and increase rapidly
with increase in height.
Under wind load the overturning moment at the
base of a building varies in proportion to the
square of the height of the building, and lateral
deflection varies as the fourth power of the height
of the building, others things being the equal.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Petronas Malayasia

Spire_Chicago_Townhouses

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

There are three major factors to consider in the

design of all structures: strength, rigidity, and
stability.
As height increases, the rigidity and stability
requirements become more important, and they
are often the dominant factors in the design.
Either the size of the members may be increases
beyond and above the strength requirements.
The second and more elegant approach is to
change the form of the structure into something
more rigid and stable to confine the deformation
and increase stability.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Due to the P- effect, in which the eccentricity of

the gravity load increases to such a magnitude
that it brings about the collapse of the columns
as a result of axial loads.
Therefore, an important stability criterion is to
assure that predicted wind loads will be below
the load corresponding to the stability limit.
The second consideration is to limit the lateral
deflection to a level that will ensure that
architectural finishes and partitions are not
damaged.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Tallest in Shangai

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Tall Building In Japan

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

In general, for high-rise buildings the resistance

to overturning moment and lateral deflection will
almost always require additional material over
and above that required for gravity load alone.
The material required for floor framing is a
function of the column-to-column span and not
the building height.
However, the material required for the vertical
system, such as columns and walls, in high-rise
structure is substantially more than that of a lowrise building.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

The material increases in the ratio (n + 1) / 2,

where n is the number of floors, because the
vertical components carrying the gravity loads will
need to be strengthened for the full height of the
building, requiring more vertical steel than a onestory structure having the same floor area.
For example in a steel building using rigid frame
action, the total weight of approximately 117
kg/m2 of structural steel is split evenly at about
39 kg/m2 for each of the three subsystems,
namely, (1) floor framing, (2) gravity columns,
and (3) wind bracing system.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

The material quantities needed with reinforced

concrete buildings also increase as the number
of stories increases.
The increase in the material for gravity load is
more than steel, whereas the additional material
required for lateral load is not as high as for
steel, since weight of additional gravity loads
helps to resist the lateral deflection and
overturning moment.
The additional gravity load, on the other hand,
can aggravate the problem of designing for
earthquake forces.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

The structure usually accounts for 20 to 30

percent of the cost of a tall building.
For building above 50 stories, the cost of a
reasonable wind bracing system may work out,
at most, to one-third of the structural cost.
Therefore compared to the total cost of the
building, wind bracing costs, which are in the
range of 7 to 10 percent, represent far from an
overwhelming portion of the total cost.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

It may appear from the foregoing that

optimization of the structural cost alone may not
be worth the effort.
The goal, therefore, is to optimize the overall
cost, a process that normally takes place in the
early stages of the project development.
The structural cost is almost invariably studied
together with the impact of the structure on
other items such as increased or decreased
floor-to-floor height, leasability of the floors, etc.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Baron Jenney's
First Leiter building,
completed in 1879
in Chicago

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Historically, the unit weight of structural framing

members in term of, say, average weight per unit
floor area appears to be progressively
decreasing over the years.
For example, a survey of tall building built in the
period 1950 1990 will verify that in this period it
was possible to build a 100-story building with
perhaps no more than 147 kg/m2 of steel as
compared to the 205 kg/m2 of steel used for the
Empire State Building in the 1930s.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

The reasons for this gradual decrease are

manifold, as can be seen from the following list.
1. Innovative design concepts. Structural
engineers are continually seeking better and more
efficient methods of resisting the lateral loads.
Some of the common approaches are:
i)

Increase the effective width of subsystems

to resist the overturning moment.

ii) Design systems such that the components

interact in the most efficient manner.
iii) Use interior or exterior bracing for the full
width of the building.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

iv) Arrange floor framing in such a way that all

or most of the gravity loading is directly
carried by the primary lateral-load-carrying
components.
v) Manipulate the dispersion of materials in
composite construction consisting of
concrete and structural steel in a manner
such that materials are used to their best
advantage.
vi) Minimize the bending induced by wind
loads in the primary components.

vii) Employ truss action to eliminate bending in

columns and spandrels.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

viii) Use rounded plan shapes to reduce the

magnitude of the wind pressure.
ix) Arrange closely spaced columns at the
exterior to support most or all of the gravity
loads and all the lateral loads.
x) Suspend floors from a central core such
that the total gravity load acting on the core
will induce enough hold-down forces to
counteract the overturning moment.
xi) Use an interior braced core that interacts
with exterior columns via belt and outrigger
trusses.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

xii)

Use exterior steel plate curtain walls to

resist lateral forces.

2. Use of high-strength low-alloy steels. Today

it is a common practice to use 345 MPa
steel in most composite floor framing systems,
gravity columns, and not too infrequently in
lateral-load-resisting elements.
3. Increased use of welding as compared to
bolting, which effects a saving in the range of 8
to 15 percent in the weight of steel.
4. Increased use of composite construction.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

52 storey Woolworth
Building (1913)

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

5. Application of computers to both the design

and the analytical processes.
6. Gradual increase in the allowable stresses in
the materials based on research and
successful past performance.
7. A reduction in the weight of other
construction materials, like partition and
curtain walls.
In concrete construction, major factors
responsible for reducing the reinforcement and
concrete quantities are:

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

1.

New framing techniques, such as skip joist

construction in which every other joist is
eliminated, have caught on in high-rise
construction with a consequent reduction
in the weight of structural frame.

2.

Increased use of mechanical couplers in

reinforcement for transferring both
compression and tensile forces.

3.

Use of welded cage for column ties, beam

stirrups, etc., which reduces the amount of
reinforcement steel.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

4.

Use of high strength concrete; 40 MPa is quite

common, and strengths up to 70MPa are
being specified on vertical components of
high-rises.

5.

Use of lightweight aggregate typically reduces

50 to 100 kg/m2 in the dead load of the
structure, resulting in savings of approximately
10 to 15 percent in the reinforcement
requirement.

6.

Most codes do not require as great a

thickness of slabs when structural lightweight
concrete is used. Typically a thickness of 12
mm of concrete can be taken off from floor
slabs without reducing the fire rating.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

7.

Use of 520 MPa steel reinforcement.

8.

Use of the state-of-the-art design methods.

A comparative height list of various buildings is

given in the following table:

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

m
1.

Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan

2004

101

508

2.

Petronas Tower 1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1998

88

452

3.

Petronas Tower 2, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1998

88

452

4.

Sears Tower, Chicago

1974

110

442

5.

Jin Mao Building, Shanghai

1999

88

421

6.

Two International Finance Centre, Hong

Kong

2003

88

415

7.

CITIC Plaza, Guangzhou, China

1996

80

391

8.

Shun Hing Square, Shenzhen, China

1996

69

384

9.

Empire State Building, New York

1931

102

381

10. Central Plaza, Hong Kong

1992

78

374

11. Bank of China, Hong Kong

1989

70

367

12. Emirates Tower One, Dubai

1999

54

355

13. Tuntex Sky Tower, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

1997

85

348

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

14. Aon Centre, Chicago

1973

80

346

15. The Center, Hong Kong

1998

73

346

16. John Hancock Center, Chicago

1969

100

344

17. Shimao International Plaza, Shanghai

2005

60

333

18. Minsheng Bank Building, Wuhan, China

UC06

68

331

19. Ryugyong Hotel, Pyongyang, N. Korea

1995

105

330

20. Q1, Gold Coast, Australia

2005

78

323

21. Burj al Arab Hotel, Dubai

1999

60

321

22. Nina Tower I, Hong Kong

UC06

80

319

23. Chrysler Building, New York

1930

77

319

24. Bank of America Plaza, Atlanta

1993

55

317

25. U.S. Bank Tower, Los Angeles

1990

73

310

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Chicago Tribunal
Tower (1922)

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Chrysler building

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Tall buildings have a unique appeal, even a

mystery associated with their design.
Developments in the last five to seven decades
have produced many slender high-rise buildings,
demanding that particular attention to be paid to
their complex behavior under lateral loads.
High-rise architecture is continuously changing,
and prismatic shapes that were once very popular
have given rise to terraced, set-back and splayed
elevations.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Computers have given the structural engineer of

today the tools to respond to this changing
architecture with daring structural solutions.
No longer does the structural engineer require that
the building be regular in plan and the interior and
exterior columns line up with each other.
Ego and competition still play a part in determining
the height of a building, but various other social
and economic factors, such as increase in land
values in urban areas and higher density of
population, have led to a great increase in the
number of tall buildings all over the world.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

380m high Empire State Building (1930)

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

70 storey RGA
Radio Tower (1939)

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

In masonry structures, the percentage of area

occupied by the vertical structural elements, i.e.,
columns, walls and braces, was inordinately
large compared to the gross floor area.
The area occupied by the walls of the 17-story
building in Chicago is 15 percent of the gross are
at ground floor with wall thicknesses of 2.1 m.
Two technological developments, the elevator
and model metal frame construction, removed
the prevailing limitations on the height of the
buildings, and the race for tallness was on.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Today, with the use of computers, buildings are

planned and designed which have little or no
historic precedent.
New structural systems are conceived and
applied to extremely tall buildings in a practical
demonstration of the engineers confidence in
the predictive ability of the analysis, the methods
used, and the reliability of computer solutions.
The development of metal trusses made it
possible to roof column-free interior spaces
easily and economically.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Lever Building, NewYork (1953)

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

Seagram Building (1957)

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

The configuration tries to simultaneously satisfy

(1) the requirements of site, (2) the
requirements of the building program, and (3)
the requirements of appearance.
For a building to be successful, it should do the
following:
1.

Create a friendly and inviting image that

has positive values to building owners,
users, and observers.

2.

Fit the site, providing proper approaches to

the plaza with a layout congenial for
people to live, work and play.

Prof. Dr. Zahid A. Siddiqi, UET, Lahore.

3.

Be energy efficient, providing space with

controllable climate for its users.

4.

For office buildings, allow flexibilities in

office layout with easily divisible spaces.

5.

Most spaces oriented to provide best

views.

6.

Most of all, the building must make

economic sense, without which none of
the modern high-rise development would
be a reality.