In This Issue

Preserving a historic property in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, was the only viable option for creating a new multi-family town home. In order to keep its existing 5,000-sq.-ft footprint, the structure needed to be a renovation. If the developer chose to demolish and rebuild, zoning requirements would shrink the new building size by half.

The project was also in tight quarters and did not allow for heavy machinery to assist in the renovation. Therefore most of the structural steel skeleton was installed by hand.

Current building codes posed a second obstacle – meeting newer seismic requirements. The solution was to place the entire building on jacks so a new foundation could be could be put into place that would support new steel columns and beams.

The job took about five months to complete by hand, but in the end the historic heritage school is now one of the sturdier buildings in town.

For more information click here.

For most of the U.S., this is the last week of Standard Time. I've already set my alarm for 2 a.m. next Sunday morning (not really, but it sounds pretty earnest) when we'll "spring ahead" an hour.

 

Funny - just when I've begun to remember to think about which side of the train I should sit on so I don't have the sun in my eyes for the 30-mile trek into the city each morning, I get a reprieve.

 

I usually catch the 6:49 heading southeast into Chicago, and since February 15th that has been increasingly after the sun came up. Just last Wednesday, March 3rd, I stopped momentarily to appreciate a colorful (6:24) sunrise as I was backing out of the driveway. This week I'll continue to carefully choose a seat on the right side of the morning train. Of source, even though next Monday we'll be back to boarding in the dark (for a week), the sun still will rise long before we arrive in town.

 

For a good explanation of what's behind the switch to Daylight Saving Time, visit http://geography.about.com/cs/daylightsa
vings/a/dst.htm.

 

If you prefer to dig into it yourself, start with the U.S. Naval Observatory's table of sunrise and sunset times for your locale (they offer times for more than 22,000 locations) by going to http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_One
Year.php. And while you're there, take advantage of the curious explanations for things like why the shortest day of the year doesn't coincide with the earliest sunset.

 

Welcome to the sure signs of spring, and remember (most of you) to change your clocks next weekend.

Haselden Construction (Centennial, Colo.) is building the 219,000 square-foot Research Support Facilities (RSF) building, which is designed to be a model for sustainable, high-performance building design. The design–build team also includes RNL Design, Denver, and Stantec Consulting, which provided engineering, energy modeling and sustainability consulting.

Technology — from sophisticated computer modeling to advanced windows that actually open — will help the newest building at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) near Denver be one of the world's most energy efficient offices. A short video clip (click here to view) shows its construction and explains many of the ways planned to achieve zero net energy use.

 

Although Denver-based structural engineer and builder KL&A is not mentioned by name, the first comment in the video is about its use of reclaimed steel gas pipe as the building columns, and all the action shots are about structure. Steel was provided by AISC member Omaha-based Paxton & Vierling Steel Co.

The newly published Supplement No. 1 to AISI S100, North American Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members, 2007 Edition, is available as a free download on the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) website, www.steel.org. (Select the “Shop AISI” tab or click here.)

The supplement adds the provision for determining the safety and resistance factor for partition walls, and updates the reference to Supplement No. 1 of AISI S123, the North American Cold-Formed Steel Framing Standard-Lateral. The Specification harmonizes cold-formed steel design technology among the U.S., Canada and Mexico, allowing faster introduction of new technologies and opening up the marketplace for a wide variety of derivative products such as design aids and educational materials.

“Houses of Steel” captures the quality and inventiveness of entrants into the annual Living Steel International Architecture Competition which has run internationally over the last three years. This comprehensive collection presents commentary and images about the winners and finalists of all the global competitions in an elegant book.

 

“Houses of Steel” is published by Images Publishing and is available in major architecture and design bookstores. To purchase the book online, visit www.imagespublishing.com or click here.

 

Additional images from the various competitions can be viewed at http://www.livingsteel.org/pages/winning
-designs

What's being answered right now:

Q. I recently received an RFI stating that one of the four 1 1/4" diameter ASTM A307 anchor rods at one braced column was bent out-of-plumb by 22 degrees and asking for a fix solution. In the past I have seen steel workers swinging big sledgehammers to straighten crooked anchor rods. However, I am hesitant to recommend this practice. I would like to recommend that they heat the offending rod and bend it gently back into place using a large piece of pipe as a lever. Is this an acceptable way to straighten slightly bent anchor rods or is there a preferred or published methodology? Some related questions are "if heat is used, how much should they heat the rod?" and "could this procedure be utilized for various grades of anchor rods?"

A. AISC Design Guide 1, Second Edition, which was just recently released, contains a discussion on repairing bent anchor rods. The authors have made some recommendations as to grade of rods, maximum angles of bend and diameters that should be heated for bending rather than cold bent. A pipe bending device called a "hickey" should be used in the straightening process. It is recommended that ASTM F1554 Grade 36 rods over 1 in. diameter be heated to a maximum of 1200 °F to make bending easier. ASTM A307 material is similar to this grade. All AISC Design Guides are available at www.aisc.org/epubs (as free downloads for AISC Members).

ASK AISC: Click here to ask the Steel Solutions Center a question.