The shape of Bitexco Financial Tower is modeled after a lotus flower bud, the national flower of Vietnam and an emblem of the country’s emergence in the global community of trade, business and commerce.

LERA was the structural engineer for this 68-story, 870-ft (265-m) office tower and podium with a gross construction area of approximately 1,230,000 sf (114,000 sm). The tower contains four levels of parking below grade. Site constraints proved to be particularly challenging, as the tower is sited on the alluvial plain terminating the Mekong River delta, leading to difficult soil conditions. In response, LERA devised an effective concrete structural system that achieved the necessary slenderness required by the constraints.

Top down techniques were used to expedite the podium construction, and the tower foundations extend more than 295 ft (90 m) below ground to work with the site’s poor soil conditions. An extensive pile load test program was required at the start of construction to verify the foundation capacity.