Madison Street: Custom Home Structural Engineering in South Eugene

Location: Madison Street, South Eugene, Oregon
Client/Owner: Our client, the owner
Partners: Rodd Hansen, Architect
Year: Designed 2012
Size/scale: One main level with a high central roof, over a daylight basement; basement retaining wall up to 9 feet high
JBE services: Lateral (wind and seismic) design and the basement retaining wall
Sector: Residential

Madison Street custom home structural engineering project, South Eugene, Oregon

The challenge

The design called for an open layout with a lot of light and sweeping views over the College Hill neighborhood. The house is two lower-roofed wings either side of a tall central space, and it steps down the lot to a daylight basement. Open plans and tall, glazed rooms both take away walls — the walls that normally resist wind and earthquakes — and the basement had to hold back up to 9 feet of soil.

Project photos

What we did

We worked in tandem with Rodd Hansen, Architect, who designed the house. Our part was the lateral system and the retaining wall. We designed plywood shear walls to brace the house against wind and earthquakes, using heavier nailing and double-sided walls where the open plan left fewer walls to work with, all anchored down to the foundation. At the lower level we designed an 8-inch reinforced concrete retaining wall for up to 9 feet of retained soil, forming the back of the daylight basement. We then checked the architect’s drawings to make sure everything our calculations called for was shown.

The result

A custom house with an open layout, plenty of light and sweeping views of College Hill, with the bracing and the basement wall it needs. It’s typical of our work as a custom home structural engineer in South Eugene, where hillside lots and view-driven designs are the norm.