Steel auditorium building with out of plane masonry wall

[PlasmaStruc]

I am facing a problem in placing a concrete block wall (6" thick) on to a steel auditorium building.
The building has two floors and an Auditorium. The entire frame is in steel.

The bracings are provided in plane to the column beam frame, so no way to place the block wall in-plane. The initial design was to use the bracing out of plane and the walls inplane.

The architect insists that the masonry wall be used. It has been proposed to place the wall on the inner side of the steel frame with a offset of about 1.5'.

This is critical for the wall around the auditorium as the wall height is nearly 30ft free standing. The wall should start form the auditorium floor and go all the way up. Flexible ties can be used to tie the wall to the steel frame.

My gut feeling is that something is not right.

Any and all suggestions/improvements are welcomed.

Thanks

 

[Guastavino]

Can you post a sketch or detail?

 

[KootK]

My gut feeling is that something is not right.

Ditto. If you cannot tie the block to the roof structure above laterally, you'll need to:

1) Install horizontal girt steel framing behind the masonry wall support it laterally. This could be one girt at the top or several up the height of the wall. Your call.

2) Provide a masonry wall of sufficient thickness and reinforcing that it can span vertically between girts.

I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.