Page 25 - Forensic Structural Engineering Handbook

1.6 DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES

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exiting requirements, and conformance to the Americans Disabilities Act (ADA). These
drawings generally contain the following:
Title/cover sheet: In addition to the title of the project, it usually designates the project
footprint, location, and area coverage with respect to the total property area, key plan, the
true north arrow, project plan north arrow, applicable local building code references,
classification of the building for occupancy and fire rating, and a list of consultants.
Plans: Designate the project program space allocations, generally a service “core”
which may contain elevators, stairs, toilets, and mechanical space requirements such as
duct and piping shafts, electrical and communication closets, mechanical rooms, and the
roof and basements or cellars.
Elevations: A pictorial view of each façade of the building indicating windows, doors, etc.
Building sections: A detailed sectional view through the building taken usually in the
project north-south and east-west direction.
Sections and details: A larger-scale dimensional detailed presentation of pertinent con-
struction components, their interface connections with other materials.
Civil Engineering Drawings. Civil engineering drawings indicate site and project loca-
tions, vehicle accessibility, topography, site drainage, and possibly landscape require-
ments, although this aspect may be performed by a licensed landscape architect rather than
the project architect.

Structural Drawings. Structural drawings indicate the design loads and applicable building
code criteria, and define the structural framing systems and their supports and foundations.
These drawings will contain the following:
Foundation plan: Generally drawn to 1/8 = 1ft 0 in scale, indicating the type of support
foundation selected for the building structure including the required soil bearing capac-
ities, elevations, dimensions, concrete strengths, and reinforcing steel.
Framing plans: Generally drawn to 1/8'' = 1' 0'' scale, showing the required floor and roof
framing systems which include the locations of columns, locations and sizes of the floor
deck (slabs), support beams/girders or trusses. These drawings will generally indicate col-
umn loads, beam reactions, and member moments where applicable. Further, equipment
loads imposed on the structure from other trades weighing more than 1000 lbs are located
on the drawings indicating that these weights have been accounted for in the structural
design. These loads would include mechanical equipment, elevator sheave beam reactions,
escalator-support truss reactions, etc.
Column schedule: A tabular matrix of the building columns indicating sizes and weights
of steel and concrete columns with the required reinforcing steel. Also, the loads on a
designated column at each floor level, the column splice location with change in column
size (if applicable). Base plate sizes (for steel columns), reinforcing dowels for column
piers, reinforcing steel for concrete columns, as well as the total load of the columns on
the foundation are also indicated.
Elevations: Showing the configuration of perimeter walls, shear walls, member sizes of
trusses or vertical bracing systems indicating forces in the members together with end
moments (when applicable).
Sections and typical details: Drawn to a larger scale and dimensions, indicating detailed
interfaces with the surrounding materials or components.
General notes: Indicates the design loading schedule which includes weights of materi-
als, live, wind and seismic loads, applicable codes, material designations, and strengths
and instructions to the general contractor.