DeSimone Consulting Engineers

DeSimone Consulting Engineers is a structural engineering firm founded by Vincent J. DeSimone in 1969 in New York City. The firm provides structural engineering services to architects, owners and developers, and performs structural analysis and design for all types of buildings at all project phases. The company has offices in New York City, Miami, San Francisco, New Haven, Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi, Boston and Medellin. As of 2016, DeSimone has designed projects in 40 states and 18 countries.[1][2][3]

Engineering

Exoskeleton buildings

DeSimone is recognized for its work with exoskeleton buildings, including the award-winning residential building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at 170 Amsterdam Avenue.[4] The 20-story residential high-rise features a concrete exoskeleton with a diagrid design and was developed using newly available modeling technology. The building's exoskeleton moves the structure to the exterior, allowing for flexible floor plans free of columns. A specialized concrete mix was used for the exterior structure which was made to look like limestone. Fiberglass was also used also used on the exterior.[4] DeSimone was nominated and received a Diamond Award for Structural Systems from the American Council of Engineering Companies in 2016 for their work on 170 Amsterdam.[5]

DeSimone is also the structural engineering firm for One Thousand Museum in Miami, Florida. Designed by Zaha Hadid, the building is the first skyscraper by the Pritzker-winning architect in the United States.[6] DeSimone developed a curved "root" exoskeleton structure to support the building. Like with The Grove at Grand Bay project, placing the buildings support systems on the exterior allows for increased space inside and reduces the amount of materials used.[7] The exoskeleton structure was originally purely cosmetic, but DeSimone was able to integrate the design into the structural engineering, creating the exterior support structure out of hollow, precast, concrete panels.[8]

Twisting buildings

DeSimone engineered the first truly twisting towers in the US with The Grove at Grand Bay towers in Miami, Florida designed by the Danish starchitect Bjarke Ingels.[9] Grove at Grand Bay features two 20-story buildings with 98 apartments that feature 12-foot high ceilings and 14-foot deep balconies. The twisting element of the buildings has a total rotation of 38 degrees, and provides panoramic views of the Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline.[10]

The twisting nature of the columns posed a number of structural challenges. The main challenge was to resist torsion generated in the tower core due to the sloping column geometry. The horizontal component of the gravity load in the columns is resolved in the slabs by transferring it to the interior core shear walls, which are the only consistently vertical structural elements in the building.[10] DeSimone was nominated and received a Platinum Award for Structural Systems from the American Council of Engineering Companies in 2016 for their work on The Grove at Grand Bay[5]

Skyscrapers and supertalls

DeSimone has served as structural engineer for many skyscrapers and is currently working on a supertall building, 125 Greenwich Street designed by Rafael Viñoly which tops out at over 1,000 feet.[11]

Sustainability

DeSimone is a U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) National Member organization.[12]

Notable projects

References

External links

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