Vert-X provided the structural design for a new office building in Palmerston North and the seismic strengthening of the attached existing 1960's building beside it, completed in 2021 with architect Chapple Architecture and builder Isles Construction. The existing steel-framed, masonry-walled building set tight floor-to-floor heights the new build had to match, while still creating large open internal spaces. Drifts had to be kept low so the new structure wouldn't overload the existing one seismically. Therefore we designed the new building on structural steel frames over concrete ground beams, with a Comflor 210 composite floor and precast concrete walls - stiff enough to control drift, and sized to hold the floor heights the existing building set. The existing building's bracing and slab diaphragm were strengthened to suit.