Wasl Tower Achieves Honorable Mention from SEAoNY SEE Awards

Wasl Tower in Dubai has won another award—an Honorable Mention for Structural Engineering Excellence from SEAoNY!

Already award-winning, Wasl Tower recently earned recognition as a Best Tall Building from the Council on Vertical Urbanism.

The sculptural, highly sustainable supertall tower twists as it rises to 995-feet, with structural floorplates, parametrically rotated along its vertical Z-axis. Its aerodynamic form and slender profile reduce wind loads by 20%.

The diverse program across 64 stories includes offices, a 5-star, 259-key Mandarin Oriental Downtown, Dubai, 229 residences, and such amenities as sports facilities, spa, retail, rooftop pools, and restaurants. An adjacent 11-level parking structure houses ballrooms and a rooftop infinity pool, connecting to the tower at two levels by three, 75-foot-long pedestrian bridges.

During the contractors' bidding stage, our structural engineers stepped in to complete a critical value engineering and design review, followed by the development of an innovative, material-efficient, and highly buildable structural design—that saved $55 million and transformed the construction approach.

The final structural solution for the tower features a strong, central, reinforced concrete core (with high-performance concrete) supplemented by composite outriggers connected to six composite perimeter columns, creating a hybrid system made of high strength concrete and steel. Support for the tower’s dynamic, sinuous form was achieved through sloping columns and the gradual elongation of cantilevers strategically placed at the corners of post-tensioned slabs.

DeSimone Team: Principal Ahmed Osman, PE, Senior Associate Aditya Kanodia, PE.

Pictured on the SEAoNY cruise in NY Harbor during which the awards were announced: DeSimone CFO/COO Tony Manuelli, Financial Analyst Tyler Rummel, Marketing Coordinator Josie Fitzgerald, Engineer Gabriella Degis, Recruiter Rachel Spaulding, and Engineers Emily Rabinowitz, and Debra Kranzlin.