Ideal condo developments are solid and safe structures

The best condos aren’t just beautiful buildings, they’re solid and safe structures, too, capable of withstanding tremors both big and small. Given that the Philippines lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, Ortigas and Company designed its residential towers Maven, Imperium, Royalton, Viridian, and Avila as sturdy buildings with sleek and modern aesthetics together with the expert advice and assessment of renowned structural consultants from Seattle, Washington, Magnusson Klemencic Associates.

The San Francisco-based Langan Treadwell Rollo was also brought in to help define the seismic hazards for each site. And because the Philippines is also along the path of a typhoon belt, the developer called in the Canadian firm RWDI to serve as wind engineering consultant.

“The towers were designed using international state-of-the-art structural design procedures, including the use of a performance-based seismic design (PBSD) process.

Through the PBSD approach, the building is analyzed utilizing advanced non-linear modeling techniques to estimate structural demands up the building height, which can often be missed in traditional design approaches. This allows the building to meet local code standards, but also follows many enhanced strength and robustness, detailing and serviceability design considerations,” said Joey Santos, GM of the Real Estate Division, Ortigas & Company.

Located at the corner of Meralco Avenue and Shaw Boulevard in Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Capitol Commons is home to Maven, The Imperium, and The Royalton.

All of the towers are built with a particular system each designed to give adequate strength, stiffness, and ductility to endure natural forces: Maven with the shear core wall system, The Imperium with the buckling restrained brace, and The Royalton with a central ductile concrete core.