The Aldar headquarters building, located at Al Raha Beach in Abu Dhabi, is one of the most recognizable structures on earth. Resembling an upright biconvex lens, the Aldar headquarters relies upon a diagonal grid, or diagrid, to transfer the weight of the world’s first circular skyscraper to its foundation. That same frame also has to react to thunderstorms, sandstorms, earthquakes, and anything else the Gulf region’s harsh climate throws at it. Principal structural engineering consultants Arup Gulf Ltd. looked to CPP for help verifying that the structure would be able to weather the storm.Led by Dr. Roy Denoon, CPP’s wind engineers developed a 1:400 scale model of the Aldar headquarters building and outfitted it with nearly 350 pressure taps to measure surface wind pressures in the wind tunnel. By measuring pressures at each of these taps, our engineers determined just how strong the building’s cladding needed to be to survive the worst storms expected at the site. By examining the overall pressure patterns, and combining these with the structural characteristics of the building, we were able to predict the overall wind loads at the base that would be transferred to the foundations.