Skyscraper Design and Construction Challenges from Award-Winning Case Studies
Abstract
The design of tall and supertall buildings presents unique challenges arising from architectural ambition, urban constraints, and increasingly demanding performance requirements. Complexities in architectural and urban design generate structural complexities that must be resolved through engineering creativity, knowledge, and analysis capability, as well as teamwork within the design office, with other disciplines (architect, electrical, mechanical, etc.), and the general contractor and its subtrades.
Three (3) Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) award-winning projects will be presented in this lecture, highlighting the complexities faced in modern structural design. Project and design details will be presented from the 1 Bloor West supertall (309m) residential, 160 Front Street West TD office tower (223m), and 81 and 141 Bay Street (~242m each) CIBC headquarters projects in Toronto.
Short bio
Since 1987 Tibor has worked in three major design firms in Toronto, Canada: in Robert Halsall and Associates as a Senior Associate for 9 years, in Yolles Partnership Inc. for 12 years as a partner, and between 2010 and 2022 in RJC as a principal until his retirement in 2023. Currently he is a consultant in Toronto and an Associate Professor (titular) at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
Over the course of his career Tibor has developed a reputation for technical excellence and creativity. He has focused on projects with significant technical challenges, developing office standards for design and production and R&D aspects of the profession with a patent with University of Toronto.
Tibor has specialized in the residential, commercial, and institutional sectors, working with world class architects from Canada and abroad, using a variety of codes and standards. Areas of expertise include reinforced and post-tensioned concrete design, finite element analysis, advanced structural steel building systems, seismic and dynamic analysis.The design of tall and supertall buildings presents unique challenges arising from architectural ambition, urban constraints, and increasingly demanding performance requirements. Complexities in architectural and urban design generate structural complexities that must be resolved through engineering creativity, knowledge, and analysis capability, as well as teamwork within the design office, with other disciplines (architect, electrical, mechanical, etc.), and the general contractor and its subtrades.
Three (3) Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) award-winning projects will be presented in this lecture, highlighting the complexities faced in modern structural design. Project and design details will be presented from the 1 Bloor West supertall (309m) residential, 160 Front Street West TD office tower (223m), and 81 and 141 Bay Street (~242m each) CIBC headquarters projects in Toronto.
Short bio
Since 1987 Tibor has worked in three major design firms in Toronto, Canada: in Robert Halsall and Associates as a Senior Associate for 9 years, in Yolles Partnership Inc. for 12 years as a partner, and between 2010 and 2022 in RJC as a principal until his retirement in 2023. Currently he is a consultant in Toronto and an Associate Professor (titular) at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
Over the course of his career Tibor has developed a reputation for technical excellence and creativity. He has focused on projects with significant technical challenges, developing office standards for design and production and R&D aspects of the profession with a patent with University of Toronto.
Tibor earned a Master’s degree in Structural Engineering from the Technical University of Budapest (BME) in 1979 and a Dr. Techn. degree from BME in 1983. Both degrees have been accredited by the University of Toronto.
Tibor was a member of the Canadian Standards Association A23.3 Design of Concrete Structures code committee from 2000 to 2025, was a member of the Standing Committee on Earthquake Design of the National Research Council of Canada, and is a member of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Tibor is also author of numerous publications and the Foundation chapter of the Concrete Design Handbook of CSA A23.3.
SELECTION OF KEY PROJECTS:
- CIBC Square (81 and 141 Bay St, Toronto) office towers; ~250m
- TD office tower (160 Front St W, Toronto); ~240m
- The One (1 Bloor St W, Toronto; Canada’s first supertall residential tower); ~307m
- Ritz Carlton (Toronto); 210m
- Aura (Toronto); 278m
- Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s Headquarters (Abu Dhabi, UAE); 342m
- Mandarin and the Veer Towers (Las Vegas City Centre, Nevada); 150m
Sandwiches are offered at the end of the seminar.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. David Ruggiero
Contact
- Prof. David Ruggiero