Quote:
Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop
Is that a transfer floor that they just completed?
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Sam, it's a good question. I was waiting a bit to see if one of our resident engineers would answer it for us. I've been trying to figure out the structural logic in this thing for a while now. It's rather bizarre, as the few pilotis on the ground floor change into a more tightly-spaced column layout for the parking floors, then back again over that beam you call our attention to, only to return to the tighter spacing.
I've come to the conclusion that this has nothing to do with practical engineering purposes and instead has to do with the design of the building. Presumably, as this building will have in-fill glazing instead of a curtainwall, the architects wanted a particular column size between penetrations instead of just having the wider span and then using a secondary member to give lateral support to the curtain where necessary. One could also reduce the thickness of the slab due to the added columns, but really, I don't think the spacing is changed so radically where it makes a huge difference, especially with the radial plan. Another option is that they needed this beam as an outrigger to increase the stiffness, but that wouldn't necessarily call for additional columns.
Anyway, to answer your question, that beam will obviously have loads coming down from the columns above it, and some small load will be transferred to the columns spaced intermediately. Rudimentary statics would tell you that there is no reaction at the intermediate columns, and hence they would become zero-force members until loads from the parking begin to come down on them. But due to varying load circumstances that will occur with wind loading, they will see some load from that beam, unless the designers have taken unusual precautions to avoid this. If you look very closely in the photograph, it does appear that the main columns are far larger than the intermediate ones, which supports the above observations.
Now, the deep beam further up that is still being formed definitely appears to be a transfer beam. You can see the more tightly-spaced column grid above coming down on it.
It's all still a little screwy to me, and alas, my knowledge isn't quite at a high enough level to hypothesize any further.
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I can neither confirm nor deny. 
I've been away for awhile, but it looks like 10 buildings under construction have jumped there craines. Love the progress!
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