Always show structural columns on your
fl oor plans—even very early in the design
process.
Showing a structural system on your fl oor plans throughout the design process—
even if nothing more than a few dots or blobs—will help you organize the program,
encourage you to think of your creation as a real building, and help you control the
eventual structural resolution. Indeed, an architect who doesn’t adequately consider
structure may have an undesirable structural system imposed on the building by a
structural engineer.
The placement and spacing of columns are usually regularized for visual unity
and construction effi ciency. Ordinary wood frame buildings typically have a column
line or bearing wall every 10 to 18 feet; commercial-scale buildings of steel or
concrete, every 25 to 50 feet. Structural systems for exhibit halls, arenas, and other
such spaces can have spans of 90 feet or more.