The 70-ft-tall architecturally exposed structural steel (AESS) delta frame assemblies for Toronto’s Queen Richmond Centre West building project were inspired by children’s jacks. Photo: Courtesy of Cast Connex
Suspending the new 11-story reinforced concrete office tower above two heritage structures - as part of the Queen Richmond Centre West building project in Toronto - are three, 70-ft-tall architecturally exposed structural steel (AESS) delta frames connected by 35,000-lb cast steel nodes engineered, detailed and supplied by Cast Connex (an AISC member).
Each delta frame is an hourglass-shaped frame comprised of steel pipes - four rising from the foundation, meeting at approximately the mid-height of the frame, and continuing through to the tabletop to frame directly below the centerlines of the tower’s columns, which are placed on a 9-m by 11.25-m (29.5-ft by 37-ft) grid. This configuration halved the unbraced length of the inclined pipe columns, significantly reducing their required member size to provide a slim aesthetic. The result was a support concept that was far less obtrusive to the building’s soaring atrium and which would be a distinctive feature of the iconic development.
A tour of Queen Richmond Centre West will take place the Wednesday of NASCC: The Steel Conference (March 26); the project is located just a few blocks from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, NASCC’s home in Toronto. Visit www.aisc.org/nascc for more information.
You can read more about the project in the March 2014 issue of Modern Steel (available now!).