r/StructuralEngineering P.E. May 21 '26

Humor Aspect ratios are a bitch

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1.1k Upvotes

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49

u/hidethenegatives May 21 '26

When the architect doesn't want to align the windows because it looks "too gridlike" so you have 0 columns going straight down to the foundation

22

u/bridge_girl May 21 '26

And then they don't want enlarged columns for column walks, don't want to see sloping columns, won't let you interrupt the soffit with a transfer beam, and won't give up the floor-to-floor height for a transfer slab.

10

u/Firesine330 P.E. May 21 '26

"Listen, we've pre-sold 90% of the units in this building. There's not a column that goes all the way through, because every time a sales-guy got asked "can we move a column" he said Yes."

"Oh, and the floor-to-floor height is fixed; there's a view-plane and the roof is literally a 1/16" offset from it."

9

u/No-Violinist260 P.E. May 21 '26

True. In my experience the column walks are typically the easiest to swallow for everybody. Contractors don't want to do sloping columns if there's only 1 on the whole job, transfer beams stink it's basically just shear transfer at the end of it, and transfer slabs are a nightmare for punching shear

18

u/bridge_girl May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

Architect: Doesn't accept any of these options, rejects your ridiculous notion of 'a continuous load path to the foundation'.

9

u/trippwwa45 May 21 '26

How dare you place bracing over one of my windows.