Forell | Elsesser provided structural design services for the recently opened Facebook West Campus project. The building includes an on-grade open parking area for approximately Forell | Elsesser Engineers provided structural design services for Facebook’s West Campus. The building includes an on-grade open parking area for approximately 1,500 cars with additional space for bus drop-offs, loading docks, lobby access, and mechanical spaces. The second story is an open office space that has an enclosed area of approximately 433,000 square feet. The office area is one large continuous floor plate with discrete functional rooms fully contained in the volume of the office to provide restrooms, conference rooms, meeting rooms, and other functional and service spaces as well as a larger cafeteria/meeting space at one end of the plan. This project is LEED Gold certified.
Customized Solution
- Lateral forces are resisted at both the office and garage levels by Buckling-Restrained Brace Frames (BRBF). At each level, there are 66 frames with 2 braces per frame for a total of 132 braces with average brace capacities of 1100 kips.
- The building’s signature feature is its undulating green roof, which includes over 300 full-size trees as well as shrubs, grasses, walking paths, outdoor cafes, and art pieces. The roof also has a large event lawn capable of supporting up to 10,000 attendees. To bring the experience of the green roof into the building, large pop-ups and sunken gardens provide natural light and views throughout the building’s interior.
- Due to the over 480,000 sf footprint of the building, there was a need for many staircases to allow for vertical circulation. This resulted in 20 exterior stairs, three interior feature stairs, and one exterior feature ramp. All of these elements were designed for a combination of gravity loads, seismic loads, and inelastic seismic building drift.