Up and Down Construction of a 17-Story Building

Lew, Marshall; Maljian, P. A.; ,

Up and Down Construction of a 17-Story Building

by Marshall Lew, LeRoy Crandall and Associates, Glendale, United States,
P. A. Maljian, LeRoy Crandall and Associates, Glendale, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Geotechnical Engineering Congress?1991

Abstract:

The One Westwood Building is located on a small site in the Westwood district of Los Angeles. Construction of the 17-story building with 8 levels of subterranean parking was complicated by: the small size of the site; structures on two adjacent properties; the inability to obtain permission to install tie-back anchors on one of those adjacent properties; and a relatively shallow depth to ground water. The design team was challenged to solve a series of problems that, when considered as a whole, appeared to be economically impossible to mitigate for the project. After much research and discussion, it was determined that a conventional shoring system consisting of soldier piles and tie-back anchors would not be feasible. In the end, it was decided that a slurry wall system could serve as both the temporary shoring and also the permanent basement wall. Since the tie-back anchors would not be used, the permanent floor system had to be used to brace the slurry wall. Accordingly, the excavation was made one level at a time from the ground surface down, with the floor levels used to brace the slurry walls to support the lateral earth pressures and surcharge pressures from adjacent buildings. At the same time the subterranean construction was happening, the steel framed superstructure of the building was being erected above grade.

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