I was walking past this development the other day and I have a question for those who are informed or have experience with this - if I’m lucky maybe we have a structural engineer or architect around?
I noticed that in the podium, the ground level columns don’t align with the demising walls of the units above; I know this is common but my understanding is that typically you’d only do a transfer at the slab if the structural grid messes up the floor plan below, ie. retail space or parking garage. In this case, the columns along Shuter are spaced essentially the same as the shear walls above them but are just shifted over slightly. I figured it must be to align with the parking layouts below but I checked the SPA documents and the structure / column grid in the parking level is completely different again.
So my question is... what’s going on here? What is the benefit or rationale for transferring the loads and shifting the columns slightly (by 2m or so?) only to transfer the structure again at the grade level slab for a different structural grid in the parking deck below?
All I can think of is that it has something to do with the lateral stability and how the podium works as its own structurally stiff unit. But my understanding was that typically the ideal scenario is to bring loads down as directly and straightforwardly as possible using columns that line up.
Just curious!