Outrigger Design for High-Rise Buildings (Second Edition)

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s Outrigger Working Group has addressed the pressing need for design guidelines for outrigger systems with this second-edition guide, providing a comprehensive overview of their use in skyscrapers. It offers detailed recommendations for analyzing outriggers within lateral load-resisting systems, recognizing and addressing their effects on building behavior, and developing practical design solutions, while also highlighting concerns such as differential column shortening and construction-sequence impacts. A new chapter examines “hybrid” outrigger systems that can tune outrigger-truss stiffness, leverage outrigger arms to drive non-linear damping devices, and use yielding materials to absorb seismic energy. Several in-depth project examples illustrate the role of outrigger systems in tall building design and suggest ideas for future applications, demonstrating how the technology continues to advance the efficiency and stability of tall buildings worldwide. The updated edition expands system organization and examples, reflects current design practices, and provides revised recommendations and directions for future research.