Multi-Family and Mixed-Use Podium Design

Multi-family buildings are where structure and budget meet most directly. The podium level, the transfer framing, the lateral system and the floor-to-floor height drive both the construction cost and the schedule. Rise Structural Group brings over 20 years of experience as engineer of record on apartment, student housing and mixed-use projects in Pittsburgh and the Mid-Atlantic, totaling more than two million square feet.

Building systems we design

• Wood-frame residential over concrete two-way slab or precast podiums
• Steel podiums with retail and parking below
• Precast hollow-core plank on composite steel beams for slim floors
• Light-gauge steel bearing wall systems
• Post-tensioned and conventionally reinforced concrete
• Transfer framing at amenity levels and ground-floor retail
• Rooftop pools, terraces and amenity decks
• Below-grade and structured parking

How we add value

We get involved early, during schematic design, when the decisions that matter are still open: where the podium sits, how the parking module aligns with the unit module, whether a transfer level is worth its cost, and how to keep floor-to-floor heights tight. We model in Revit so the structure coordinates with the architecture and MEP, and we design for the way contractors in this region actually build.

Experience

• The Park at Southside Works, Pittsburgh: 350,000 square feet, 246 units, concrete podium with four stories of wood framing above.
• Brewer’s Block, Pittsburgh: 460,000 square feet in three buildings, including a restored historic structure with a new rooftop pool.
• The Bridge on Forbes, Pittsburgh: ten-story student housing on precast plank and composite Deltabeams over two parking levels.
• Ten60 Bolivar, Cleveland: 178 units built over an existing three-story parking garage.
• The Ashby at South Hills Village Station and The Foundmore: multi-building wood-framed communities with steel and precast transfer framing.

Projects before June 2023 were completed with Shawn A. Graham, PE as engineer of record at his prior firm.

Who we work with

Architects, developers, design-build contractors and modular builders.

Talk to us about your next project

Call 412-230-3583 or contact us. We are glad to look at a site plan and give early structural input before you have a fee in hand.