​Business Center Offices
Caracas, Venezuela
Architecture: Estudio Bekous Y. Georges
Construction area:  7.990 m2
Sector: Commercial
Scope: Structural Engineering Project
Project year: 2010
Construction year: 2011-2013

​​It is an office building, commercial areas and parking lots in the Las Mercedes urbanization in the city of Caracas. The building has nine floors, of which two basement levels are below the ground with an approximate height of six meters. The structure of the project is made of reinforced concrete through a distribution of orthogonal frames on which reticular slabs are supported. One of the conditions is generated by the use of occupation corresponding to parking on two basement levels, and on the last three floors, which limits the dimensions of the columns to allow distribution of positions and flow of vehicles.

Given the recommendations indicated by the soil study, indirect foundations were designed made up of piles excavated and poured on site. For the basements, the solution of cable-stayed cast walls is adopted with a design based on the different construction phases, where lateral forces from soil stresses, hydrostatic stresses and surface overloads are considered.
 The earthquake-resistant system is made up of special moment frames in the two main orthogonal directions.
The non-structural enclosing walls of the vehicle elevator contain details of special seismic joints, so that they do not interact with the structure in the event of movements, avoiding unwanted torsional effects in the event of seismic movements.