Ground Up Design

Ground-up structural design is where precision meets possibility. 

Structural Focus has provided services for numerous ground-up buildings including corporate headquarters, commercial office buildings with cantilevered floors, media production facilities, university residence halls, performing arts centers requiring complex foundation work and precise acoustic coordination, LEED-certified research and laboratory facilities with state-of-the-art seismic resisting systems, one-of-a-kind residential estates, mixed-use campuses, and more. 

Each project is shaped by those who will use it, informing structural decisions. Whether it’s steel moment frames and buckling restrained braces, reinforced concrete, tilt-up panels, heavy timber, or cold-formed framing, we select the best system for each project's architectural, performance, and budget objectives. New construction is also a rare opportunity to make deliberate choices about the environmental impact of material selection. Whenever possible, we work to reduce embodied carbon without compromising design integrity or ambition.

We collaborate from the earliest design stages, when structural decisions carry the greatest influence over cost, schedule, and architectural outcome, allowing us to shape, rather than react to the project. We coordinate closely with all other disciplines to resolve design conflicts and remain involved through construction administration to ensure the structure is built as designed.