Our senior design project was a residential home in Tallahassee, FL. The house is approximately 36,000 square feet and lakefront. The overall problem with the project was the size of the home. This caused issues with location of utilities, drainage and unique shapes.
The overall area for allowable building was a little under two acres. For a typical home this would not be an issue, however, this home was approximately one acre itself. There was a large oak tree that caused issues with finding a suitable area for a septic tank and well. Reorganizing the orientation of the driveway made enough area for these utilities. Runoff water into the lake was another concern. Using natural resources, the water was filtered into the soil before reaching the lake.
We did not structurally design the entire home due to the size. Instead, we broke the house into sections and designed the most important components. We provided drawings for the foundation, first and second level framing, and roof framing plans. The entire first floor was framed out of wood and the second story was framed from steel with steel columns going to the foundation. From there, we broke the home into sections for specific details of key components. These details were enlarged drawings that highlighted connections, member sizes, and called out important structural points aspects. We did calculations to support the specifications we drew on the details.
Our design aimed to please the client while maintaining the legal code. Price, sustainability and environmental impacts were considered for this design.
Matheus Brandao, Connor Burk, Luis Cruz, Nasser Doud, Andre Nacional
Sean Martin, Ph.D., P.E., FRSE
Halff Associates; Ryan Culton, P.E., M.B.A. Austin Cushing, P.E.
Spring