L.A. Live Hotel & Residences
An Innovative Steel-Plate Shear Wall Solution 

THE STORY It was March, 2006 when Nabih Youssef Associates started the review of the conceptual design for L.A. Live Hotel & Residences and a new idea was born - an idea to replace heavy 30" concrete shear walls with light 1/4"-3/8" steel plate shear walls and free valuable real estate space, reduce seismic design forces and foundation sizes by eliminating 35% of the weight of the structure, compress the construction schedule and budget, and allow for simplified and more efficient construction. The concept was intriguing enough that Nabih Youssef Associates was hired by the developing group, AEG, to convert the 56-story concrete shear wall design to steel-plate shear wall solution. Both schemes were being developed in parallel for six months in order to validate them thoroughly. The decision was made and the FIRST steel-plate shear wall high-rise building in Los Angeles is on its way to the sky!

PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS

• Owner/Developer - AEG Worldwide, Los Angeles, CA
• Structural Engineer - Nabih Youssef Associates | Structural Engineers, Los Angeles, CA
• Architect - Gensler, Santa Monica, CA
• General Contractor - Webcor Builders, Los Angeles, CA
• Steel Fabricator & Erector - Herrick Steel Corporation, Stockton, CA
• Steel Detailer - Steel Systems Engineering, Inc., Sherman Oaks, CA

DESIGN MODELS 

Courtesy of AEG and Gensler

Courtesy of AEG and Gensler

Courtesy of Nabih Youssef & Associates

WHAT IS A STEEL-PLATE SHEAR WALL?

Steel Plate Shear Walls (SPSW) resist lateral forces primarily through diagonal tension in the web-plates and overturning forces in the adjoining columns, referred to as vertical boundary elements. Typical SPSW web plates (1/4"-1" thick) have negligible compression strength and thus, shear buckling occurs at low levels of lateral loading. Lateral loads are then resisted through diagonal tension in the web and plate rather than in shear. Boundary elements are designed to permit the web plates to develop significant diagonal tension and for high-seismic design - reach their expected yield stress across the entire panel while dissipating energy. Some of the benefits of SPSW are: more usable floor area (max 12" finished wall vs. 36"-42" conventional concrete shear wall), lower seismic loads and foundation costs (reduced building mass), as well as quicker erection and completion. The ductility of the SPSW web-plates results also in unparalleled performance under moderate and severe seismic loading.

For more information on the Steel-Plate Shear Wall system, please contact the AISC Steel Solutions Center at 1-866-ASK-AISC or solutions@aisc.org.

WHAT – WHEN - WHERE?

October 29th, 2008
AISC / Herrick Steel / AEG Breakfast Presentation and Onsite Tour

Program

Presentation Files

Pictures

Videos

Main Presentations
We encourage viewers to also open the Presentation Files (linked above) for high quality images to accompany the video files.
Also please note that you may need to adjust your volume for each presenter.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Lower floors, stairwell-side view of a shear wall
General view of a shear wall, part 1
General view of a shear wall, part 2
Some details of shear wall material selection, fabrication & erection
Pan around lower floor, full length of shear wall
Exterior of building

In the Media

• http://blogdowntown.com/2008/10/3756-la-live-tower-structure-hailed-at-steel-industry
• http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/10/the_evil_genius_of_ritzcarltons_steel_construction.php
• http://modernmetals.com/common/ArticleSearchDetail.asp?CurrentPage=7315
  

 

For more info on this project, please contact Nina Kristeva
AISC West Coast Regional Engineer
619.254.6708 - kristeva@aisc.org