Pearl River Tower: Design Integration towards Sustainability

The Pearl River Tower is a 71-story, 309-m (1015') office building in Guangzhou, China. The overall goal for the project was to create the most energy-efficient office building possible. Construction was completed in 2012. Close coordination and collaboration between the architects, structural engineers and MEP engineers was required to accommodate several of the energy-saving measures. In order to meet the demands of the sustainability initiatives, the architectural complexities of the building, and the Chinese Code Wind and Seismic requirements, the overall structural concept utilizes a highly integrated series of systems, including:reinforced concrete core walls, composite mega columns with structural steel Mega X-bracing, structural steel outrigger and belt trusses, structural steel columns, and composite floor framing. This paper will discuss the challenges that were presented by this project and how the various disciplines worked together to solve them. Particular emphasis will be placed on the structural role in this work.