The Design of the Burj Khalifa by William F. Baker (SOM)

The Design of the Burj Khalifa by William F. Baker (SOM)

Saturday, May 29, 2021 @10:00 JST (9:30 to 10:00: TEST SESSION)

SUMMARY:
The Speaker for this lecture is William F. Baker, Structural Engineering Design Partner for the architectural engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP, who was the structural engineer for Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest high-rise building in the world. Bill will trace the early structural design development from the Competition held in 2003 to the Grand Opening of the building in 2010. The presentation will discuss what were the issues that dominated the design of the structural system and the resulting building form with the three wings, which step back in a spiral pattern ,buttressing the core. He will also discuss the impact the building has had on the surrounding properties (the Burj Khalifa Effect) over the past decade.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

William (Bill) F. Baker (SOM / Partner)

William (Bill) F. Baker is a Structural Engineering Design Partner for the architectural engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP. His work spans a wide array of structural engineering projects, ranging from small pavilions to the world’s tallest structure, the Burj Khalifa. One of the focuses of his research and design is the optimization of structural/architectural geometry to minimize the embodied carbon of buildings. He has an Honorary Professorship in Structural Engineering Design with the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge where his research and lectures focus on design and on adapting the contributions of Rankine, Airy, Maxwell, and Michell to structural optimization and modern structural design. Baker’s honors include being a member of the National Academy of Engineering, an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Gold Medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers, the Fritz Leonhardt Preis (Germany), the Gustav Magnel Gold Medal from the University of Ghent, the Fazlur Rahman Khan Medal from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, and the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Outstanding Projects and Leaders Lifetime Award for Design. He has received Honorary Doctorates in engineering from the University of Stuttgart, Heriot-Watt University, Illinois Institute of Technology, and the University of Missouri.

His principle areas of interest and expertise concern the structural engineering design of buildings; most notably, tall and very tall buildings (skyscrapers), long span roofs and specialized structures. With a focus in tall building design, he has led the structural engineering design of 26 towers over 300 meters tall, including the world’s tallest manmade structure, the 2,700-foot-tall Burj Khalifa. His long-span roof experience varies from the cable-supported roof structure at Chicago’s McCormick Place North Building, the Broadgate Exchange House in London and the Entrance Pavilion for General Motors’ Headquarters in Detroit. His work on specialty structures ranges from the engineering of sculptures in collaboration with numerous artists, including James Carpenter, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, James Turrell, and Jaume Plensa to collaboration on highly engineered and detailed single family homes. Further interests extend to research and development related to structural optimization and structural topology. By exploring optimal topologies, he hopes to create new architectural design opportunities based on engineering principles.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After attending this program, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the key attributes and the name of the structural system of the world’s tallest building.
2. Explain why a point tower for normal height cannot be simply scaled up to the height of the Burj Khalifa.
3. Discuss the effect that the Burj Khalifa development had on the surrounding properties (the Burj Khalifa Effect).
4. Describe how the shape of the Burj Khalifa reduced the wind forces on the tower.

CES:
2.0 LU for AIA members