Structural Engineers Association of Northern California Newsletter - March 1996

March 5, 1996 SEAONC Meeting

The San Francisco International Airport is well into its planned $2.4 billion Master Plan Program. Foundation construction has already begun on one of the major elements of the airport expansion program - the International Terminal. The March 5 program will be a presentation of the architectural and structural engineering features of the new International Terminal building which will be the visual center piece of the expansion program. The seven-story building encloses approximately 1.5 million square feet of space.

To clear existing access roads, the roof of the new terminal building needed to have a very long span - 380 feet over the central portion of the building. The roof structure is a double cantilever form with graceful curves giving the roof a winglike appearance. The length of the cantilevers is 140 feet and the entire roof structure is 820 feet long and 210 feet wide.

The roof structure is located 100 feet above the main departure hall. The exterior wall of the departure hall in one of the tallest window walls constructed (100 feet high). The large departure hall and roof are supported on a base isolation system. The one million square feet structure is one of the largest structures to use base isolation.

We are fortunate to have three of the primary people involved with the airport expansion program and the new International Terminal building as speakers at the joint SEAONC/AIA meeting on March 5. Gene Bordegaray, Administrator of the airport's Bureau of Design and Construction will present an overview of San Francisco International Airport Master Plan Program. Mr. Bordegaray is responsible for the ambitious expansion program which will improve the domestic and international traveler's journey through the airport.

Craig Hartman is the Partner in Charge of Design for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's west coast region and is responsible for design of the new International Terminal. Mr. Hartman will discuss the important design features of the new terminal building.

The third speaker will be Navin Amin, Chief Structural Engineer for the San Francisco office of SOM. Mr. Amin will discuss the challenging structural design features of the new terminal building, including foundation support in soft soils, seismic lateral load resisting systems, and the large clear span roof structure.