Larosa Engineering

Atherton (2013): This is a 2-storey single-family residence with over 10,000 sq.ft. of living space including a 3,500 sq.ft. basement. Engineering Featured: Ceilings are mostly either vaulted or raised with open plan in both the ground floor and basement which demanded strategic framing to prevent excessive use of deep steel beams and keep the floor depths at a minimum. Both the architect’s and the homeowner’s desire for more window openings is satisfied without having to use the typical costly moment steel frames by effectively interacting with the homeowner, architect and contractor and use cost-effective alternative lateral-resisting elements instead.

Menlo Park (2008): This is a 2-storey single-family residence with a basement with footprint larger than the Ground Floor. Engineering Featured: The large Family Room with portion of the Upper Floor and sizeable second floor Porch is situated above an open Basement which demanded strategic framing and allocation of shear walls. The 3-storey Main Stairs which had the architect’s vision of “floating” was successfully engineered without intermediate posts or hardware attachment into the 3-storey window openings.

Tiburon: This project is a multi-storey house with varying or stepped floor elevations. Engineering Featured: The stepped retaining walls and the smaller footprint of the floor above the garage leaving the rest of the floor (above the garage) to be utilized as tiled decks. The elevator from the garage was effectively installed to go up 3.5 floors which demanded for the design of high retaining walls and shoring. The driveway from the street leading to the a covered porch in the rear of the house (upper level) was built-up higher from it’s natural grade with engineered fill and high site-retaining walls supported by drilled piers.

Napa Valley: This is 20,000+ Residence is situated in a 200 acre winery and featured 3-storey masonry fireplaces, large open and vaulted rooms. Engineering Featured: The multi vehicle garage is located in the top floor and was “framed” above a living space. The original plans were successfully engineered for a large swimming pool below two floors with retaining walls and limited load bearing points.