Structural Engineering for Multi-Family Homes

This architecturally unique multi-family building offered several structural challenges: long cantilevers, an upper floor ending in space with no obvious means of support, and because this project is build in Hood River, OR it has larger than normal snow loads.  The developer wanted to build a condominium project unique enough to stand out from the crowd - and thanks to Ogren Engineering's out-of-the-box thinking, that's what he got.

 Another engineer had told the developer this project was not possible to be built as architecturally designed.

When the plans were brought to Ogren Engineering, we rolled up our sleeves, scratched our heads a little then provided an easy to build, cost effective and architecturally unique solution to the problem.  The developer wanted to end the upper floor short of the front wall and have no column support below while providing a jog in the upper floor - all while maintain a flat ceiling, meaning the floor joists can't cantilever over a beam support.

 Faced with this challenge, we hung the upper floor from the roof framing with a one-inch diameter steel rod which fit in well with the architectural design.  To solve the lateral loads issue with the upper floor diaphragm not extending to the front wall, Ogren Engineering proposed another architecturally unique structural feature which is now a prominent feature for the interior living space - a steel ring with one inch diameter rods extending from the floor diaphragm to the front wall - connecting the structural together and providing the developer with his initial architectural design.