Photo © Tom Bonner Photography. All photos courtesy AISC
At this year’s NASCC: The Steel Conference in San Antonio, Texas, the 13 winners of the American Institute of Steel Construction’s (AISC’s) 2017 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel (IDEAS2) Awards were announced. Spanning three categories based on total construction value (greater than $75 million, $15 to $75 million, and less than $15 million), nearly 100 submissions were received.
Judging was conducted by a panel of experts, based on factors that included:
- use of structural steel from both architectural and structural engineering perspectives;
- creative solutions to program requirements;
- innovative design approach to connections, gravity systems, lateral load-resisting systems, fire protection, and blast;
- inventive use of architecturally exposed structural steel (AESS); and
- steel-related technical or architectural advances.
Photo © Tim Griffith Architectural Photographer
“These projects and the creative people behind them showcase the beauty and usefulness of structural steel,” says Charlie Carter, president of AISC. “What a great compilation of excellent solutions. Congratulations to the award-winning teams!”
In the most-expensive category (exceeding $75 million):
- Arup’s Samsung Americas Headquarters (Device Solutions) in San Jose, California earned a national award;
- Clark/Smoot/Russell’s joint project, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C., earned a national award;
- Arup’s Fulton Center in New York City earned a merit award; and
- THP Limited’s Nippert Stadium West Pavilion in Cincinnati, Ohio, earned a merit award.
In the $15 to $75 million range:
- LPA Inc.’s Los Angeles Valley College Monarch Center in Valley Glen, California, earned a national award;
- Architectural Engineers Collaborative’s Terminal East Infall at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport earned a national award;
- ARW Engineers’ Weber County Library Headquarters Branch in Roy, Utah, earned a merit award; and
- Walter P. Moore’s Southwest University Park in El Paso, Texas, earned a merit award.
Submitted projects were judged by category. The Chicago Public Library’s Chinatown branch (Drucker Zajdel Structural Engineers) was among the merit-award-winners for the least-expensive category (valued at less than $15 million).
Photo © Jon Miller, Hedrich Blessing
In the least-expensive category (less than $15 million):
- NAST Enterprises Corp.’s Pterodactyl office in Culver City, California, earned a national award;
- Drucker Zajdel Structural Engineers’ Chinatown Public Library in Chicago earned a merit award; and
- ColoradoBuildingWorkshop’s Lamar Station Classroom for Urban Farming in Lakewood, Colorado, earned a merit award.
A number of additional awards were also granted. The Presidential Award of Excellence in Engineering went to Leslie E. Robertson Associates’ Four World Trade Center in New York City, and jury recognition for an art installation, sculpture, or non-building structure went to Summit Metal Fabricators’ Anthony Gormley Sculpture Fabrication & Installation in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Over the course of the year, awards will be presented at each project site to the team members involved in the structural framing system’s design and construction (e.g. architect, structural engineer of record, general contractor, owner, etc.). An archive of winners can be viewed here.
