Saiful Bouquet is the Structural Engineer of Record for the new Friendship Foundation project which is a one/two-story building on a 3.3-acre site in Redondo Beach with a very unique spirally sloped roof and long cantilever overhangs under the jurisdiction of the California Division of State Architect (DSA). The Friendship Foundation supports parents and families who have children and young adults with special needs by providing a safe, accepting, and inclusive environment where they can enjoy sports, art, music, and social programs. The 39,000 gsf building will house a preschool through elementary education school and will include space for visual arts, performing arts, fitness and nutrition, job training, offices, classrooms, a gymnasium and 15,000 gsf of outdoor area.
To support the creative architectural design, Saiful Bouquet explored various structural systems at the early stages of the project which included a steel construction scheme with braced frames and concrete flat plate scheme with Concrete Shear Walls. The steel construction was finally selected for its flexibility to best accommodate the long-cantilevered spirally sloped roof assembly and for its relatively light construction which yields smaller seismic forces. Buckling restraint braced frames were used as the seismic load resisting system for the building. The braced frames were located in such a way so not to impact the function layout of the building.
