Details
- Size: 250,000 square feet
- Completion Date: 2014
Awards
- Award of Excellence in Structural Engineering – Outstanding Project, 2016 NCSEA Excellence in Structural Engineering Award
- Presidential Award of Excellence in Structural Engineering, 2016 AISC IDEAS Award
- Award of Excellence – Structural Systems Design, 2015 AEI Board of Governors
- Award of Excellence – New Construction, 2015 SEAOSC Excellence in Structural Engineering
Team
- Architect: Morphosis
- General Contractor: Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company
Emerson College Los Angeles is the West Coast home of Boston-based Emerson College. Located in the heart of Hollywood and the center of the entertainment industry, this $85 million building serves as a small-scale university campus combining below-grade parking, classrooms, performance space, offices, and student housing into a single building. The building is home to over 200 students majoring in film, television, marketing, acting, screenwriting, and journalism.
The iconic structure is characterized by two slender concrete residential towers bridged by a multi-use platform, enclosing a central open volume consisting of sculpted steel forms and interconnecting spaces. The complex geometry of the central volume required creative structural problem solving to maintain efficiency of material and constructability while upholding the architect’s vision.
Design Creativity and Complexity of Problems Solved
The nearly square footprint of the building is founded upon three stories below-grade and rises in that shape up to the 3rd level. Above the 3rd level, the square shape of the building is broken into two separate pieces: the Eastern tower–a slender rectangular floor plate housing residential units, and the Western tower– a combination of academic space and administrative offices in an irregularly shaped slab adjoined with residential units. The two towers continue to rise, with the Western tower’s shape continually changing, until the 6th level when the West tower reduces to a near-mirror image of the East tower. The towers terminate at the 11th level roof where they are connected by a helistop spanning over the academic structure below.
System Efficiency, Economy, and Technical Innovation
The helistop that connects the East and West towers of Emerson College is supported by eleven 120-ft long, 5-ft deep castellated beams, which maximize the structural load carrying capacity without adding weight.
Helistop Castellated Beam Erection
The connection of the two towers, at both the roof and bridges at Levels 5 and 6, created structural challenges accommodating the differential deflection of the separated elements. To minimize the movement of the towers, the helistop was ultimately used as a diaphragm to control the torsional deflection of the residential towers. This allowed separation joints between elements to be minimized, as well as provided reduced deflection criteria for the sensitive curtainwalls and scrims cladding the towers’ exteriors.
The Academic Form Structure, supported by the East & West Towers
Constructability and Design Integration
A singular and complicated design like Emerson College can only be created and explained using three-dimensional models. Multiple building information modeling (BIM) platforms were used by the design teams but were combined to coordinate the structure with the architecture.
BIM Model
In developing the structural model for the academic form, multiple iterations of geometry refinement were coordinated with the architect’s model. The thickness of the exterior assembly was determined by the factory-assembled panel system, including tolerance and connection details, and the structural shape was set using a three-dimensional shell created by offsetting the architect’s exterior shape. Through close collaboration, both the aesthetic and functional intentions of the architecture were used to aid in shaping the appropriate structural systems and geometry.
Numerous subcontractor models, in addition to the structural, architectural, and mechanical models, were combined for multi-discipline BIM coordination and conflict identification, solving problems before they appeared in the field. During construction, three-dimensional models (along with traditional two-dimensional drawings) were submitted by the structural steel contractor to more clearly explain the unique geometry and details required at the academic form. The appropriate use of design and coordination programs contributed to the successful delivery of Emerson College Los Angeles on-time and on-budget.
