Pivot to China: How Jin Mao Portended Future Supertalls

This program will feature Mark Sarkisian, PE, SE, LEED AP, Structural and Seismic Engineering Partner, SOM. Mark Sarkisian is the structural and seismic engineering partner in SOM’s San Francisco office. He holds fourteen U.S. and international patents for high-performance seismic structural mechanisms and environmentally responsible structural systems. Mark has designed more than 100 major building projects around the world, including the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the NBC Tower in Chicago, and two supertalls, Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, and Al Hamra Tower in Kuwait.

Mark will discuss the structural design of SOM’s Jin Mao Tower. Its multiple functions, with offices on the lower floors and a luxury hotel and observation deck above, established the mixed-use typology that would characterize many Chinese supertalls in the next two decades. Mark will explain the innovative foundations and seismic design of Jin Mao and the concrete core and mega-column structural system that accommodated the dramatic central atrium that rises through the hotel stories.