Scotia Place – 12 Story Apartment Building

This paper describes the design of a 12-story apartment building on a single story basement, which has wood floordiaphragms, and structural steel gravity and lateral load resisting systems. The design objective was to develop the mostcost-effective structural system while meeting building functionality goals and adhering to code requirements. The mainstructural and non-structural design issues considered in this all-wood floor building are reviewed: gravity loads, lateralloads imposed by wind and earthquake, floor vibration, acoustics, and changes in wood moisture content. Thelightweight structural form proved to be a practical system to lower construction material cost and enable alternativeconstruction techniques to be employed. A comparison with a concrete floor option is briefly made.