The shopping mall will be two floors with 3 department stores and a grand entrance with an indoor Ferris wheel with views from the first and second floors to the inside or outside of the mall through glass panels. The mall has about the same number of stores with the exception of eliminating 4 of them to add emergency exits. The general area of the mall was kept the same, however there was a increase in area to accommodate the predicted 900 people in the food court area. A department store was added on the first floor underneath the food court. The mechanical and utility rooms were moved to a store area next to the food court. More stores on the second floor were eliminated to provide these areas and the remaining area is to be used to restrooms since it is adjacent to the food court. The food court provides seating for about 160 people at a time and has room for 13 restaurants. There is a walkway around the back of the restaurants for employee and maintenance access. We also added an area for a loading dock in the back. We kept the location of the elevators and plan to have them encased in glass so that the passengers can view the atrium of the mall and the Ferris wheel. The idea of a balcony in the atrium also seemed fitting although the actual location of it was changed to allow the escalators to arrive at the food court. Most malls have a fountain somewhere in them, so we kept the fountain on the first floor for aesthetics.
The structural system for this building consists of metal joists, which support a composite deck, and are tied into steel girders that transfer the building loads into the columns. The walls shall be constructed of reinforced concrete. The even structural bays of 40’x 40’ make the mall easy to design with this system. A curtain wall should be designed to hang above the main entrance doors on the south side of the building. Ample space is left at the top of this wall for proper anchorage of the structure.
