A Civil Engineering Capstone Research Project on the Design of a Green Building

Using the knowledge obtained from previous courses such as: soil mechanics, structural analysis, steel design, etc., a team of seven students at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) designed a two-story residential steel house for their senior design course. The home was chosen to be located in the city of Pacific Palisades, California. The following paper outlines the design of the home ranging from the architectural plans to the beam, column, and foundation design. California is known to be seismically active, therefore, seismic loading played a large factor into the design of the house. Once the design of the house was completed, a cost estimate of the house was prepared using the estimating platform RSMeans. Additionally, a second estimate of the home was also completed with the addition of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) features such as solar panels, LED lighting, and energy star appliances that make the home environmentally friendly and will give the owner a greater return on their investment in the future.