Structural

los angeles courthouse, usa

Battle McCarthy was commissioned to undertake the structural design of the specialist steelwork which supports the glazed atrium enclosure at the south-western end of the building. The main feature of the atrium structure is the elegant, curved solar wall, which rises 120m from street level up to the roof plate of the main building and cantilevers beyond by a further 50m.

Vertically spanning steel trusses spaced at 8m centres provide the primary support structure to the curved wall and have been designed to act as propped cantilevers. These main trusses are also braced together behind the layer of glazing to give the cone-shaped facade structure in-plane lateral stiffness to resist wind, seismic and bomb blast loads, whilst allowing for expansion and contraction of the facade under temperature variations.