Civil and structural engineering services were provided by Halcrow Yolles for the Sentinel building, a twelve-storey development generating 85,000sq ft of grade A office accommodation on a tight city centre site in Glasgow.
Construction extended over a 14 month period and just in time delivery programming techniques were utilised.
The building is supported on piled foundations, taken 15m to rockhead, which in turn support balanced ground beam foundations. The steel framed superstructure supports concrete floors on metal decking which act compositely with the cellform beams. Stability is provided by the central core incorporating 3 lifts.
Column free floor plates and 4.5m cantilevers were the challenges faced in the design of the Sentinel building and these were achieved by adopting long span cellform beams which accommodated services through the 450mm diameter holing pattern set at 600mm centres.
Key constraints faced in the design included the demolition of the existing structure in close proximity to neighbouring buildings; the need to limit the vibration which might affect existing buildings during demolition and construction; the challenges of a constrained site and the need to design the structure to match the phasing sequence and to meet ‘just in time delivery’ programming of works; and the limitation of deflection of cantilever beams supporting curtain walling.