The Paul Zia Distinguished Lecture Series

Design & Construction of the rainier square redevelopment project

58-story performance-based seismic design mixed-use tower

The Rainier Square development in Seattle includes a 1.4 million square-foot, 58-story, 850-foot-tall mixed-use tower as the centerpiece. Bracing this tower against wind and seismic demands is a new structural system: a Concrete-Filled, Composite Plate Shear Wall (CF-CPSW) system, or as coined by AISC – SpeedCore. 

SpeedCore is the result of 15 years of collaborative research and development between Magnusson Klemencic Associates,  Purdue University, and The University at Buffalo.   Much of this research has been conducted by Dr. Amit Varma whose work has underpinned the technical merit of the system, Codification,  as well as on-going improvements. 

Generous funding and support of the research has been provided by the Charles Pankow Foundation, American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), The Steel Institute of New York, and the MKA Foundation.  In kind support has been provided by Supreme Steel, Cives, Banker Steel, J.F. Stearns, Geiger & Peters, and Turner Construction 

Early estimates suggested SpeedCore would shave 8-months from the construction schedule of Rainier Square as compared to conventional methods.  Recently completed, the building was actually delivered in a lightning-fast 22-months, 10 months ahead of the original schedule. Truly a Game Changer! 

Ron Klemencic and Dr. Amit Varma will share details of the project,  structural system, research results, lessons learned, and prospects for the future.

Watch this video to see a quick snap shot of what this lecture will entail.

This annual lecture honors Professor Emeritus Dr. Paul Zia, former professor and department head of NC State’s Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, and a structural engineer who is eminent in research, professional society leadership and practice.

This year’s presenters will be Ron Klemencic, PE, SE, Hon AIA, from Magnusson Klemencic Associates and Dr. Amit Varma, a Karl H. Kettelhut Professor of CE and the Director of the Bowen Lab of Large-Scale CE Research at Purdue University.

Sponsorship opportunities are available.