Case Studies of Multi-Storey Wood-Frame Construction

in USA
Kevin C. K. Cheung, Dr, PE, Director of Technical Services, Western Wood Products Association, Portland, USA

Introduction including a kitchen and dinner facility,

and amenities like a music room, library,
Shortage of affordable housing is a card and game rooms, a craft shop, and
problem shared by many major cit- an arts centre. Figure 1 shows a selected
ies in the USA. Three- to five-storey elevation of this project. The project was
wood-frame buildings offer economi- completed in 1987 (Fig. 2). The budget
cal housing through low construction for the project was 9,5 million USD,
cost and high speed of construction. which included the cost of land and 4,7
In the designing of multi-storey wood- million USD for construction.
frame buildings, fire-safety and struc- Wood-frame was chosen primarily on
tural considerations are required by the basis of cost compared to steel- Fig. 2: Copperfield Hill project completed
building codes. In addition, shrinkage frame. Bids for steel-frame came in
and sound transmission do require 75% higher than wood-frame. The ease
special attention. of wood-frame construction allowed fire-retardant-treated lumber covered
Most Americans live in the suburbs in the building to be framed in about five by type X fire-resistive rated gypsum
low-rise wood-frame constructions, in- months. wallboard on the interior.
cluding single-family detached houses According to the 1985 Uniform Build- Although the exterior brick walls
and one- to three-storey apartments ing Code, exterior walls were required reach 15 m in height in some places,
and condos. This has resulted in what to be constructed of non-combustible they were constructed without the use
is known as suburban sprawl—widely materials. The architect divided Cop- of relieving angles. However, numer-
spread population, increasing the cost perfield Hill’s living area into six ous vertical expansion joints and flex-
to the local government in providing “buildings” using fire-resistive area- ible brick ties were used to minimize
streets, water, and sewer services. Plan- separation walls. cracking.
ning for the shifting demographics and
rising land cost, US cities are turning To minimize shrinkage, the project Wind was the main lateral force de-
to densifying housing development of architect selected open web parallel- sign consideration. No uplift prob-
in-fill projects in the city and new de- chord wood trusses for most floor joist lems were encountered in the design.
velopment projects in suburban town members. Other than shrinkage con- To carry the high gravity loads on the
centres. sideration, this type of truss provides lower floors, 64 mm × 90 mm lumber
easy access for routing plumbing, me- at 406 mm on-centre was typically used
Keywords: multi-storey; wood-frame chanical and electrical systems. Solid for the interior wall studs, and 39 mm
construction; shrinkage; sound trans- sawn lumber joists and wood I-joists × 140 mm lumber at 406 mm on-centre
mission; case study; fire-separation were also used, but to a lesser extent. were used for the exterior wall studs.
wall; fire-retardant-treated lumber.
Steel was used to form the large open Hem-Fir stud grade solid sawn lumber
central atrium and to support the code- was specified for wall studs.
Case Studies required non-combustible metal pan
stairs. For aesthetics and to meet the Case Study II: Delancey Street
A number of major US cities including code requirement for non-combustible Foundation Triangle Complex
its suburbs are building denser devel- exterior wall assemblies, a brick fac-
opments and taller buildings to provide ing was chosen. For framing within the The Delancey Street Foundation Trian-
housing to the increasing population. exterior walls, the architects specified gle Complex in San Francisco is owned
The popularity of multi-storey wood-
frame construction is spreading across
the USA. Four projects are presented
to showcase multi-storey wood-frame
construction.

Case Study I: Copperfield Hill

Copperfield Hill is the first five-storey
wood-frame building to be built in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. The building
is a 15 328 m2 self-contained retirement
community that provides apartment- Fig. 1: Elevation view of the Copperfield Hill project (photocredit: Galpin Ciaccio Klick
style living spaces and common areas, Associates)

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 by the Delancey Street Foundation, an The project’s total cost was 25 million
innovative and highly successful reha- USD, which included land, financing
bilitation program for drug abusers and marketing expenses. Of the total,
and alcoholics. $2 million was for land and $16 mil-
lion was for site development, labour
The complex has seven buildings total- and construction materials. The project
ling 30 193 m2 of space. The complex took 15 months to construct and was
contains a central court yard, health completed in 1988.
club, pool, 500-seat assembly hall,
recreation building with a 150-seat The main section and two wings are
screening room, dry cleaner, auto re- four stories on top of a poured-in-place
pair shop with an antique car museum, Fig. 4: Delancey Street project completed parking garage. A four-storey skylight
wood shops and a 400-seat restaurant. atrium in the centre of the main build-
The four residential buildings provide ing serves as a gathering place. Steel
with 16 mm gypsum board covering
177 living units. Areas below the three- components were used for parts of the
one face of the wall, 9,5 mm plywood
storey wood-frame structure provide parking garage and for the open-frame
with 16 mm gypsum board on the other
commercial and retail space. Figure 3 public area which includes the four-
side, and 90 mm acoustic batting woven
shows an artist’s project rendering. storey atrium structure. Connections
between the staggered studs in the wall
cavity. The entire assembly provides a of wood floor trusses to steel-frames
The materials for the complex were were made by bolting a continuous
donated, and the Delancey Street STC rating of approximately 53.
wood plate to the top of the steel beam,
members did much of the construction thus making a standard wood-to-wood
themselves and learned valuable con- Case Study III: The Gatesworth connection possible.
struction skills. The project was com-
pleted in 1989 (Fig. 4). The Gatesworth at One McKnight The project was designed using three
Place, St. Louis, Missouri, is a four- fire-separation walls to divide the
Each building has two exterior exit storey wood-frame building. It has one building into four different building
stairways that are constructed of pre- five-storey wing. It contains 26 013 m2 sections. A two-hour fire-resistive rat-
cast concrete treads, risers and land- of living area plus 6 113 m2 of parking ing was required for the exit hallways,
ings. The buildings also have one under the building. stairway enclosures and assemblies
interior exit stairway, which is wood-
The building is a retirement community separating the parking garages from
frame. All wood-framing is Douglas
with shopping area, cultural activities, the living areas above. The two-hour
Fir-Larch (DF-L) solid sawn lumber.
banks and churches. The multi-wing fire-resistive rated walls have two
To help reduce shrinkage problems,
building includes 219 one- and two- layers of 16 mm type X gypsum wall-
38 mm thick lumber with a maximum
bedroom apartments with balconies boards on each side.
of 12% moisture content was used as
floor joists. No shrinkage calculations and full kitchens, a theatre-style audi- The two-hour fire-resistive rated floor
were performed. torium, greenhouse, fitness centre, arts separated the parking garage from the
and crafts centre, library and lounge living areas – 38 mm × 286 mm lum-
To reduce sound transmission between areas, and formal and informal dining ber joist system with double layer of
units, staggered 2 × 4 wall studs to the rooms. Figure 5 shows a project floor 16 mm type X gypsum wallboard on
front and back of the wall cavity on a plan and Fig. 6 shows the completed the garage ceiling and 38 mm of light-
38 mm × 140 mm (2 × 6) plate are used project. weight concrete over 16-mm plywood
on the first storey floor. To maintain
the required fire-resistive rating of
the exterior walls, exterior balconies
were framed with fire-retardant-treated
lumber.
Wind was the main lateral force design
consideration in lateral force. Basic
design wind speed was 113 km/hour,
approximately 73 kgf/m2 on the pro-
jected area. To resist the lateral forces,
gypsum sheathing was used on all exte-
rior, interior and partition wall faces.
Some selected walls were built with
plywood as well as gypsum sheathing
installed on the exterior faces.
DF-L stud grade 38 mm × 140 mm
lumber was doubled at 610 mm on-
centre for the first- and second-floor
bearing walls to carry loads that were
as high as 2 268 kg. Tripled 38 mm ×
140 mm lumber studs were used for
Fig. 3: An artist’s rendering of the Delancey complex (photocredit: Backen, the lower level walls in the five-storey
Arrigoni & Ross) wing. Loads are carried to the ground

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 The Heathman Lodge was built under
the 1994 Uniform Building Code. The
building is a light wood-framed one-
Lounge hour fire-resistive rated construction
for hotel sleeping occupancy and ex-
hibit and lecture halls. The first floor
- 1 Bedroom unit is 3,35 m in height, while the second
- 2 Bedroom unit
- 3 Bedroom unit
and third each reach 3,05 m and the
Walkout garden level
(5-Story wing) Fi fourth at 2,74 m. The building reaches
an overall 20 m high. Under the Uni-
re
Firewalls
wa

form Building Code, this structure

ll s

Greenhouse Theater Indoor pool & spa type can stand three stories plus an
additional floor when sprinklered.
Crafts Garden dining Fitness The hotel was designed in seismic

Firewalls
Lounge
ctr. zone 3. The City of Vancouver build-
Atrium Formal dining ing authorities required the engineer
Central
to design the building to withstand
kitchen 145 km/hour winds with an exposure
Lobby D classification.
R-2 Occupancy A-3 Occupancy
in residential areas Entry in public areas
Roof load was at 122 kgf/m2, floor live
load was 195 kgf/m2, 292 kgf/m2 for
decks, and stairs and corridors were
(5-Story section)
designed at 488 kgf/m2.
Fig. 5: Floor plan of the Gatesworth project (photocredit: Arthur J. Sitzwohl & Associates)
The engineer specified all 38 mm
thick S-Dry (maximum 19% moisture
the surfaces. To prevent this potential content) solid sawn lumber for studs,
problem, four bearing lines through plates, and sills of No. 2 grade or better
the cross section of the building were DF-L. Larger 90 mm and 140 mm thick
used. The interior corridor partitions lumber used to support loads around
were designed as bearing walls to sup- windows and balconies called for No.1
port the roof and floor trusses. The grade DF-L. Window headers were
centre corridors were then bridged 140 mm × 241 mm No. 1 grade DF-L,
with 38 mm × 184 mm lumber. Each while the plan uses 90 mm × 235 mm
half of the roof was trussed separately No. 2 grade DF-L, unless otherwise
with a gap provided at the ridge to noted.
Fig. 6: Gatesworth project completed allow for any movement that might
take place. This arrangement virtually Glulam members used were 140 mm
eliminates the potential for cracks on × 302 mm 24F-V8, 130 mm × 356 mm
through the alignment of the vertical the interior finishes due to differential 24F-V8, and architectural grade was
bearing members, on the ends of each shrinkage. specified for all exposed uses, and in-
floor truss, to the vertical load-carrying dustrial grade when enclosed. Wood
studs directly below. This reduced the I-joists used were 241 mm and 302 mm
load on the horizontal members. Case Study IV: Heathman Lodge
in depth, and 68 mm × 302 mm para-
The floor members were 610 mm deep The Heathman Lodge is an Alpine style lam members were also used. Pine logs
parallel-chord trusses, except for the four-storey wood-frame hotel found used were 305 mm, 406 mm, 457 mm
joists supporting the first floor. The in the growing southwest Washington and 610 mm in diameter.
38 mm × 286 mm first floor lumber State City of Vancouver (Fig. 7). The
lodge has 121 oversized guest rooms The structure is divided into four
joists were blocked with short vertical areas, sections A through D. Each
pieces under the bearing walls. This ar- plus 22 suites, meeting and banquet
rooms spreading almost 11 148 m2. has a two-hour fire-separation wall
rangement takes advantage of wood’s dividing the areas. All corridors are
negligible longitudinal shrinkage and protected with a 1-hour fire-resistive
allows the vertical blocking to carry rated assembly. The ceiling is one
the load if the 38 mm × 286 mm joists hour fire-resistive rated using 16 mm
shrink across their width. thick type X gypsum with RC-1 resil-
In most cases, wood floor trusses were ient channel. The wood I-joist floor
hung from the steel beam to avoid dif- joists are covered with 25 mm thick
ferential shrinkage between wood and gypcrete over 19 mm thick tongued-
steel. Commercial brick anchors were and-grooved plywood subfloor on the
used between the wood-frame and first three floors.
brick veneer, which allowed for a dif-
Shear walls are found mostly at exte-
ferential movement of 25,4 mm or less.
rior walls and at the corridors. The roof
Movements between the ceiling and Fig. 7: Heathman Lodge (Vancouver, framing material used prefabricated
the interior partitions near the middle Washington, USA) – a four-storey engineered trusses spaced 610 mm on-
of the building can result in cracks on wood-frame hotel centre. Roof trusses are designed for

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 98 kgf/m2 live load plus 59 kgf/m2 dead Conclusion Specification writer:
load besides the truss system weight
Herman Hoyer, South San Francisco,
adding 910 kgf/m2 in fire-rated ceiling The popularity of multi-storey wood-
California, USA
areas. The architect specified a stand- frame construction is spreading across
ing seam green metal roof over other the USA. Major US cities are planning Project coordinator/code consultant:
materials. for denser development and taller Jack Scott & Associates, San Francisco,
buildings to provide affordable hous- California, USA
One of the most impressive aspects ing to the increasing population. Three-
of the Heathman Lodge is the porte to five-storey wood-frame buildings Construction Cost:
cochere (Fig. 8). The porte cochere is offer economical housing through low No cost estimate provided as materi-
topped with a metal roof. Under the construction cost and high speed of als were donated and volunteers did
roof is a layer of felt building paper, construction. construction
12,7 mm plywood sheathing, and
Service Date: Fall, 1989
38 mm × 140 mm (2 × 6) tongued-and-
grooved decking.
SEI
EI Data Block Case III
Several balconies of various design
and placement surround the build- Developer/Owner:
Case I
ing. Most are supported by a founda- One McKnight Place Development
tion footing. They use four 457 mm Developer/Owner: Co., St. Louis,
diameter log columns to provide sup- Darrel A. Farr Missouri, USA
port for six balconies (Fig. 9), two on Development Corp., Minneapolis,
Architect:
each floor above the second storey. Minnesota, USA
Arthur J. Sitzwohl & Associates, Creve
Horizontal members are 305 mm dia- Architect: Coeur, Missouri, USA
meter logs.
Klick Inter Arch Design, Minneapolis,
Minnesota, USA Structural design:
Eason, Thompson & Associates, Inc. St.
Structural design: Louis, Missouri, USA
TSP, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Contractor:
Contractor:
One McKnight Place Development
Darrel A. Farr Development Corp., Co., St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Framing subcontractor:
Framing subcontractor:
McBride & Son Companies, St. Louis,
Braxton Hancock & Sons, Inc., Edina,
Missouri, USA
Minnesota, USA
Project cost (USD million): 25
Lumber (excluding
Fig. 8: Porte cochere of Heathman Lodge
wood trusses) (m3): 1100 Service Date: December, 1988
2
OSB (m ): 18 100
Case IV
Total construction
cost (USD million): 4,7 Owner:
Service Date: December, 1987 Heathman Group, Portland, Oregon,
USA
Case II Architect:
Developer/Owner: Fletcher Farr Ayotte, Portland, Oregon,
Delancey Street Foundation, Inc., San USA
Francisco, Structural engineer (hotel building):
California, USA
Dale Haller Engineers, Portland,
Architect: Oregon, USA
Backen, Arrigoni & Ross, Inc., San
Structural engineers (porte cochere):
Francisco, California, USA
Conlee Engineers, Inc., Portland,
Structural design: Oregon, USA
R.M.J. & Associates, South San Fran-
Project cost
cisco, California, USA
(USD million): 20
Geotechnical consultant:
Service Date: November, 1997
Harding Lawson Associates, San
Francisco, California, USA
Fig. 9: Balconies of Heathman Lodge

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