General Building Design Reference 1

[justhumm]

I recently graduated with my BS; and I have been working with a [red]bridge designer[/red]. Now, in a bizarre twist of fate, I find myself assigned to the design of a [red]four-story building[/red].

I feel my reinforced concrete professor (and his book) covered the course material adequately, however, he did not cover building systems (walls in particular). I work in a relatively small office; and I am feeling a little behind the curve on this job. Can anyone recommend a textbook (or any other reference) that covers building systems well.

Thanks.

 

[JAE]

There is a book called "Handbook for Structural Engineering" (or a similar phrase) by Gaylord & Gaylord that covers building design in general.

But listen, if you are a new grad, and you are given the task of a 4 story building, you absolutely should be working under the guidance of a PE. And the PE should be mentoring you on this. If you don't have a PE over you that has experience in this sort of thing, its a good chance that you are violating the laws of your state as you are practicing engineering without a license (you did say you were just graduated) and you have no one who is licensed and qualified to oversee the design and take responsibility.

So I guess I'm saying the best bet is to get this sort of talent from your supervisor, not a book.

 

[Slugger926]

Will anyone be checking your work?

I was in a similiar situation for a scale company with no mentor out of college. Every structure I designed had to be approved by a regulatory body of some sort and stamped by their PE's. When I designed railroad scales, each railroad had to approve the plans with their PE's. They really mentored me when I sat down with them and went over everything.

Thanks to SOLID reasearch and engineering, my designs were always approved. Each railroad had their own quirks on what and how they wanted to see exploded detail drawings. Also some states had their own dated quircks on what they wanted for their concrete foundation designs. (Nebraska didn't want monolith concrete floor/piers, and Oregon and Washington wanted their truck scales to be able to float when loaded with a truck in case of a flood (I guese you could say I have experience designing boats as well)).

Besides conver a design book and standards, you may want to check what the law and codes are for the state or area of your building.