AISC IDEAS2 Award Won for UCSF Ray & Dagmar Dolby
AISC Ideas2 Merit Award Winner, UCSF Ray & Dagmar Dolby

AISC Ideas2 Merit Award Winner, UCSF Ray & Dagmar Dolby

Forell | Elsesser has received one of four nationwide American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) merit awards for the UCSF Parnassus Ray & Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine building. IDEAS2 was awarded because of its innovative and creative use of structural steel from an architectural, structural engineering, and sustainable design perspective. Forell | Elsesser was part of the design/build team of DPR Construction and SmithGroupJJR.

Ray & Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine is the first LEED Gold Certified project to receive an Innovation in Design (ID) Credit for high-performance seismic design. Forell/Elsesser was able to show that the base isolated design resulted in a 40% reduction of structural materials and 43% reduction of COover a conventionally designed structure of equal seismic performance. In addition, the design-build process saved UCSF approximately $20 million and two years on their schedule.

Forell’s structural engineering solution for this long, narrow structure was base isolation. “Triple Pendulum” isolation bearings were selected because of their ability to limit the structure’s torsional response. Based on nonlinear response history analysis, the building is designed to move a maximum of 26″ laterally and 2″ vertically during a magnitude 7.8 (M7.8) earthquake.