Building Tall and Going Deep: What It Takes to Support Tall Buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area

Have you ever looked into the sky and wondered, “What does it take to support a tall building?” Perhaps you may have even grown more curious if you are in a dense metropolitan area with challenging geology! This session shows the significance of soil, bedrock, and groundwater conditions and the effect of basement depth in determining the appropriate type of foundation support. It highlights three high-rise buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area on sites with varying subsurface conditions, each with a different basement depth and different type of foundation support. This “tale of three sites” also explores various criteria that have been used to determine the acceptable performance of tall buildings.

A portion of the proceeds are donated to Rebuilding Together San Francisco. This organization provides home repair and renovation programs for their San Francisco neighbors, nonprofit organizations and community spaces.