The columns that lean
A framed tube carries its wind load by bending the spandrel beams between its columns, and it does it badly — the corner columns take nearly six times what the middle ones do. Tilt the columns instead, so the perimeter is triangulated, and the same shear is carried axially. The concentration falls to 1.23 and the tube recovers most of the stiffness the plan said it had.
rung 1 · structures