Background
This new condominium building features over 50 levels of framing with 42 residential floors including 492 units over a structured recreational deck and 10 split levels of parking. The ground floor includes 10,000 square feet of commercial space fronting a major boulevard. The overall structure covers a floor area near 1,000,000 square feet.

Advanced Technology
The Moana Vista project utilizes a combination of thin concrete shear walls with an architecturally-inspired expressed exterior concrete x-brace to efficiently resist lateral seismic and hurricane forces. The concrete shear walls are linked together to maximize efficiency, and higher loads within the building height are accommodated by new generation composite steel plate link beams. The overall system combines the latest in technology, resulting in an extremely efficient structure, while creating a signature architectural expression of structure, style and form.

Client Benefits
In order to provide system efficiency, team meetings were held to massage the column layout to help minimize the few longer spans that impacted the whole system. Longer spans were accommodated by an upturned beam, and therefore reduced the difficulty of formwork. Architecturally, a low upturn did not obstruct views out of the residential units and created a rhythm to the exterior look. The system also resulted in cost savings for the building's exterior cladding as the concrete was less expensive than the glazing system. From an energy consumption standpoint, the potential heat gain through the building's glazing was reduced as well. This work also resulted in a tight 8.5 foot floor to floor height that allowed the owner to add sellable floors that would not be possible with other configurations.