Ultra tall building - Hankang City Tower

Although technology is now available to build ultra tall buildings, many structural issues remain that have to be resolved to insure efficient and safe designs. At such heights, dynamic impact of wind becomes a dominant parameter that requires special attention, Hankang City Tower, which could perhaps be the tallest building in the world is located in Seoul, Korea where design wind loads are significantly higher than those in Chicago. Few structural schemes are looked at, which were compatible with the architectural schemes studied for the tower. A final scheme was chosen. This paper presents the structural approach taken. Dynamic impact of earthquake forces on the tower are addressed.