Plastic Design of a 14-Story Apartment Building

The subject of this paper is the plastic design of the steel frame of the 14-story Binghamton Apartment Tower in Binghamton, N. Y.. The design method used was that advanced by the authors of the Lehigh University lecture notes entitled Plastic Design of Multi-Story Frames. The Lehigh notes provide analytical methods for both braced and unbraced frames. The unbraced frame method was used for this project because architectural considerations prevented the use of X-bracing or shear walls. Sample calculations taken from the actual design sheets are included in an Appendix to illustrate the design methods and techniques described.