Sydney Hall is a mixed use development, located in the Dinkytown area, adjacent to the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis Campus. This building will provide 125 student housing units over retail shops. There is below-grade secure parking for 137 cars and capacity for 212 bicycles.

VAA was hired by ESG Architects, Inc. to provide the structural engineering services for this project. Sydney Hall consists of five levels of wood frame construction over three stories of post-tensioned concrete, two stories of which are below grade. The concrete construction provides a strong and stiff base for the housing project while offering the open space and circulation required for parking below grade and retail tenants at grade level.

One unique attribute of Sydney Hall is the huge and recurrent window openings in the housing levels. This feature provides abundant natural light for the residents.  At the same time it offered a host of structural challenges for VAA including: locating sections of the remaining exterior wall between openings large enough to use as shear walls; providing window lintels to resist both gravity and wind forces; designing adequate window jambs and compression blocking to support five levels of floor framing; and detailing to accommodate cross-grain wood shrinkage. VAA accomplished this undertaking using fire-treated  exterior wall lumber to satisfy the III-B construction type for five-story wood construction.