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S T E R N A N D C H R I S T O F S P I E L E R When it wus finished m Il>7l, One Shell tin this project, research that has served beams welded together at very, very close the post modern movement came about. Plaza was the world's tallest concrete the industry well over many, many years. S[\K nig. I he World 11.ufe i enter had Before that we had basically a Miesi.m- building. The 7IS-foot, 50-story build- And then when I moved ro Houston in columns that were three-feet-four-inches type design, which some call International ing, which fills the block bounded by I4f>^, the building was just about fin- on center on the outside and a very deep Style, buildings were fairly regular. They Louisiana. Smith. Walker, and McKinney. ished. For the last 3.5 years, I have been spandrel beam. F.ssenrially, you could were rectangular, ihey prcttv much went was also Gerald D. Hines' first project involved in whatever tenant work and look at the facade as a sheet of steel straight up and down, and so you could in downtown Houston, and it drew changes that have been made on the with punched rectangular windows. It develop a whole family of structural attention not only for its size, hut jor project. So it has been a project that 1 was built as a column/beam system, but systems that suited that kind ot design. the close collaboration between design have been associated with for almost 40 it was actually just a sheet of steel with When you have the post-modern type architect and chief engineer. As princi- years now. openings. In that respect, it was similar architectural expression, you very seldom pal ami founder of his own firm, CUM to One Shell Plaza. If you step back and get the opportunity to do a perimeter Engineers, and as a teacher of engineering CITE: Mow does One Shell I'laza fit into look at One Shell Plaza, the columns are frame system, because the structure does tn architecture students at the Unhteristy the evolution of high-rise structures? six feet on center with a very deep span- not go up straight from top to bottom. So of Houston. Joseph Colaco knows struc- COLACO: Dr. Fazlui Khan, my boss at drel, |list with rectangular openings, so it you have to come up with different types tural engineering firsthand. He worked SOM [Skidmore, Owings & Merrill| at is a perforated tube on the outside. The of systems. as project structural engineer on (me the time, essentially developed the catalog difference between One Shell Plaza and Shell I'laza. and watched as its structural of structural systems based on general the World Trade Center was that we also CITE: One Shell Plaza is concrete, while innovations took root. To mark the 1 Sth heights of buildings. For heights up to have a core in One Shell Plaza made of most ol the buildings l-'azlur Khan is anniversary of the building. Cite edito- about 30 stories, we could generally concrete walls. And in the World Trade known for are steel. What led to the rial board members William l\ Stern and use what we call a frame type structure. Center, there was no core. The entire choice of material? Christof Spieler sat down with Colaco Co Once you get up in the 50-story category, resisting system was in the perimeter of COLACO: SOM had done a 3N-story talk about One Shell Plaza, the collabo- you have to tie two structural Systems the building. One Shell I'laza, being 50 building called the Brunswick building in ration between architects and engineers, together and do a shear wall with a stories, falls in the intermediate category Chicago. It was an all-concrete building. and how that has changed since the frame, what he termed the tuhe-in-tuhe where you have a tube iti tube. You And what that developed was a style thai building was constructed. type system. And once you keep getting have a shear wall core, which forms one combined structure and architecture into higher than that, you get closer to 75 to tube, and then you have ,i perimeter col- one expression. When you can develop a CITes Looking hack on it now, what does 100 stories tall, you do what we call a umn and beam system, which is a frame, combined architectural/structural system, One Slii'll Plaza mean to you? tubular design, which is where all ol the and forms a perimeter tube. In the pan- not only is it aesthetically pleasing and JOSEPH COLACO: It means a whole lot to resistance is put on the exterior of the theon of structural systems, it's right in makes sense, but you get the benefit ol me for a whole lot of reasons. One was building. One example of that design is the middle. having the architectural elements, like that at the time it was built it was the the |ohn Hancock Center in Chicago. the skin of the building, provided in the tallest concrete building in the world. It Another is the World Trade Center, which CITE: I low has this catalog ol systems structural frame. You develop a lot ol was a verv innovative structural system, unfortunately collapsed. That was a changed since One Shell Plaza was built? economies. So when they starred talk- There was a great deal of research done frame tube, where vou have columns and COLACO: The biggest change was when ing about One Shell I'laza. that theme ol combined architectural/structural my father asked what I wanted t<> do, I expression came about, it you look at the said that engineering sounds like a ihing design, you will see that the building is I could fall into. And so my dad went to clad with travertine. And right behind the check with some of his friends, and India travertine is a concrete frame that exactly was in a tremendous kick at the time minors the travertine exterior system. with construction projects coming out all Tin- glass is essentially placed within the over the country. concrete frame, so you do not have to provide an expensive aluminum system to CITE: When was this? hold the cladding in place. The concrete COLACO: I'm talking about 1955-1957. structure, in effect, is the backup system By the second year of college I'd pretty for all the travertine and glass. link li ili-, uled to go to engineering school. I got admitted to another col- CITE: Tell us about the way the building lege, also in Bombay, and the nice thing curves out at the corners. about that college was that there were all COLACO: The reason the building curves different branches of engineering—civil, Out at the corners has to do with the mechanical, electrical, textile, and chemi- way the gravity loads and the weights of cal. All these had the same curriculum the floors are transmitted CO I he exterior for the first year. But hy the second year columns. One Shell has got very closely I li.nl in i In nisi-. \nd in s quickls I came spaced columns. They arc six feet on cen- to the conclusion that civil and structural ter along the facade, and going through were where I wanted to he because I liked the building you have 36 feet between buildings, and I liked to be outdoors, the outside column and the core. The and I liked to see things finished. After core is MI (eel Jeep, and anoilu i ;'-> leet I graduated I worked lor a year lor a mi the other side. When you come to British company in India. Basically my the corners, you have a two-way system, job was to set up a pre-cast concrete fac- and when you have a two-way system, iiu \ in Kinnli.li. \iul Mien I * .line in ilk the loads thai come Irom (he floors gel University of Illinois for graduate work. concentrated in the column bands that And that's where, when I was finishing are at the ends of the grid and not in the up my I'hD dissertation, Dr. Fazlur Khan corners. II you accumulate this load over called. I lis former advisor was ins .win 50 stories, those columns have much sor. That was in 1965. heavier loads than the columns going towards the corner on the facade, and CITE: Fa/.I u r Khan is probably one of so they have to be made bigger in order the best-remembered structural engi- to keep the stress level on the columns neers in U.S. history. What can you tell all the same, which is a guiding principle us about him? HI i.ill building design. In this particular COLACO: Dr. Khan was an engineer case, the decision was made to express working at SOM in Chicago.