This Weeks Episode of Building High Rises in Small Spaces
As I had mentioned last week, I am always fascinated by buildings with peculiar means of supporting themselves. In large cities, the area in which a base of a buildings base can be created is limited. The 54 story office tower at 150 North Riverside in Chicago worked around this issue. Believe it or not, this structure looks even more “insane” than the Citicorp building.
This 1.25 million square foot office building sits on a plot of land no wider than 39 ft. The initial question is how? Using a combination of a 4 story transfer truss, a 160,000 gallon rooftop water tank (to minimize swaying), and sixteen 110 ft deep concrete caissons socketed to the bedrock below, this building is capable of carrying any loads produced by the Windy City.
The primary reason for constructing the base in the manner seen above, stems from the limited plot area. Surrounded by multiple subsurface Amtrak lines as well as the river beside it, constructing this type of structure on such a small base plot is, to put it simply, remarkable. Along with the structures creation, the subsurface train lines were sealed off and a large park was created on top of the sealed area.
