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Francis Nolan

Francis Nolan

Flourtown, PA, US

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Frank Nolan Thesis Project - Drexel University

These are images from my thesis project, which was a skyscraper on Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts. It is a mixed use building, with an office component, hotel, and condominiums. The structure is a bundled tube system similar to that used in the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower in Chicago. There are seven tubes of differing heights comprising the structure, with the vertical circulation core in the center supported by x-bracing. Each building component (office, hotel, residential) has different floor plan requirements. The differing heights of the tubes are arranged to accommodate these plan requirements - the office component requires the largest floor plates, so the shortest tubes reach only to the highest level of the office component. The hotel has the second largest floor plates so the middle-height tubes reach to the highest level of the hotel floors, and the residential floors have the smallest floor plans, so only two tubes reach to the highest level of the building. There are express elevator transfer floors that contain skylobbies and other public amenities, with mechanical equipment floors separating the building components and in the building's crown.

 
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Status: School Project
Location: Philadelphia, PA, US