Hyatt Centric Center City Philadelphia Hotel is a 175,000-sf, 13-story, 203-key hotel with restaurants, fitness center, event and meeting spaces, outdoor terrace for guests, and two levels of parking on stackers for 220 cars.

IMEG provided structural engineering design services for the new building which incorporates 1,340 tons of steel. The overall width-to-length ratio of the hotel’s footprint (57 feet by 249 feet) necessitated the use of steel-braced frames to provide lateral resistance in both directions. Located in the center of the building, the elevator and stair openings cut
off direct lateral load transfer from the diaphragm to these frames. Angle drag struts in an “X” configuration below the plank drag the load into the frames. In addition, two large transfer girders at the third floor provide a large column-free area for the second floor ballroom.