IMEG provided engineering design and services for phase I of the new headquarters campus for Nvidia, the world’s largest stand-alone manufacturer of 3D graphics chips. The $300 million, all-glass façade building includes 525,000-sf of office space for more than 2,200 employees and a two-level, below-grade parking garage for 1,500 cars.

Engineers provided structural engineering design for the building, which has an open floor concept with exposed, triangular grid structural steel framing over a post-tensioned concrete podium. Offices and workspaces line the exterior walls, creating a natural flow toward the “heart” of the building, where conference rooms and common spaces are located. A 40-foot ceiling, numerous triangular skylights, and the undulating roof structure lets in enough natural light to the center atrium to give employees a feeling of being in the outdoors.

The building’s location in Santa Clara required significant seismic design elements, including seismic isolation of the interior office structure from the exterior shell and the use of buckling-restrained braced (BRB) frames and steel columns to handle the seismic demand from the trussed roof system. The truss roof structure translates seismic loading from the interior of the building out to the exterior BRB frames, which are supported on the exterior concrete walls and columns. IMEG worked closely with the architect and owner to ensure the structural design fit seamlessly with the project’s overall design and met Nvidia’s needs and desires for their innovative and unique headquarters campus. The project received the Award of Merit in the New Construction category of the Structural Engineers Association of California’s 2020 Excellence in Structural Engineering Award.