SidePlate

United States Federal Courthouse

Client

GSA

Architect

H3 Hardy Collaboration Architeture, LLC

Structural Engineer

Walter P. Moore

General Contractor

Yates Construction

Fabricator

Steel, Inc.

Erector

Steel, Inc.

Description

Six-story, 410,000 sf Federal Courthouse

Challenges

• To meet tight budget and schedule demands
• To exceed stringent design criteria, including IBC 2006 and GSA progressive Collapse Guidelines

Solutions

• SidePlate was selected over a concrete moment frame due to its faster construction time, which was estimated to result in a five-months savings in construction costs
• The stiffness of SidePlate allowed the beams and columns to be reduced in size, demonstrating an additional four weeks of savings in welding time and a 1.5 psf reduction of structural steel
• SidePlate® moment connections were used around the perimeter of the structure to resist the lateral displacement of the code prescribe wind forces, and to eliminate the progressive collapse vulnerabilities found with other connection geometries (see GSA/DRTA blast testing report...)
• It was found that when using the SidePlate® moment connection, the governing design criteria was the wind displacements (H/400), and there was virtually no change to the member sizes when they were checked for the alternate path procedure set forth in the GSA guidelines