About the author  ⁄ Patrick Ragan, S.E.

Patrick Ragan is an Associate with WSP in Chicago. He is a member of the ASCE Tall Buildings Committee and the Task Committee on the Design and Performance of Tall Buildings under Wind Loads. He may be reached at patrick.ragan@wsp.com.

WSP was an Award winner for its Hanking Center project in the 2017 Annual Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards Program in the Category – New Buildings over $100M.

The Hanking Center in Shenzhen is China’s tallest steel-framed structure, rising 70 stories and 1,140 feet, with over 1,000,000 square feet of office space above six levels of retail.  Tour an office floor and you will find a wide-open space with views in all four directions, but you will not find a restroom or an elevator lobby.  That is unless you cross a narrow bridge spanning the 35 feet back to the service core, which is a separate 68-story, 1,110-foot tower.

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The 783,800-square-foot Zurich North America Headquarters is the largest build-to-suit office project completed in the Chicago area in the last 15 years, but this striking addition to the I-90 corridor in Schaumburg is not just notable for its size. The unique building form is comprised of the three long rectangular bars shown in Figure 1. The east and west lower bars rise six stories from the ground, while the five-story upper bar sits on top of – and spans between – the two lower bars.

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STRUCTURE magazine