Jefferson Green @ Journal Center, Albuquerque, NM

This 80,000sf, three-story steel framed office building is situated in an area with particularly soft soils. Soils investigations yielded an IBC Site Class D, which drove the structure into a stringent Seismic Design Category. After studying several lateral bracing schemes, the design team and general contractor settled on a creative use of infill concrete shearwalls with steel columns as boundary elements. This allowed the entire steel frame to be erected prior to casting the shearwalls, not penalizing the construction schedule as composite steel/concrete framing solutions often do. These shearwalls and much of the structural steel framing will be exposed architecturally in the building lobby and tenant spaces.