This design/build project involved close collaboration between Mar Structural Design and Miyamoto International. Design responsibilities were divided 50/50, with Miyamoto designing the nine-story steel-framed superstructure, and Mar designing the concrete podium slab over six stories of subgrade parking. The concrete substructure was relatively complex, and included cut-ins for mercantile spaces and drive aisle entrances along a sloping site, large elevated water cisterns for fire and green roof irrigation, major collectors at the podium slab to transfer braced frame forces to exterior basement walls, and story-tall composite steel and concrete columns at the base of the superstructure’s braced frames. Mar Structural Design saved the project significant costs by finding an alternative to the geotechnical engineer’s initial recommendations to build one end of the garage on engineered fill. Instead, we carefully analyzed the building’s settlements using soil springs provided by the geotechnical engineer, followed the settlement over the construction sequence, and determined that long term settlements after construction up to the podium slab would be negligible, even when the superstructure was built above. This analytical effort and insight saved the project $1M by avoiding unnecessary over-excavation, shoring and engineered fill costs.