Steel in the News

The U.S. Energy Administration (EIA) released the Early Release Overview of its Annual Energy Outlook 2012  on January 23, projecting that residential and commercial building energy use is expected to decline more rapidly in the next couple of decades than originally thought. EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) projections since 2005 illustrate that estimates for energy consumption to 2030 have dropped by nearly 70% due to considerable movement within the building sector to improve building design and efficiency.

The final Annual Energy Outlook 2012 will be issued later this spring.

Saving Costs
The 2011 AEO forecasts that American consumers will spend $3.66 trillion less on energy between 2012 and 2030 than was originally projected in 2005. If, by 2030, we embrace efficient building technologies, these savings will top $6 trillion.

More Buildings, Less Energy
In 2005, the AEO forecasted an increase in total U.S. building floor area of 51.9% from 2005 to 2030, with energy consumption and CO2 emissions increasing by 44.4% and 53.1% respectively. While the AEO 2011 projects a slightly lower building floor area increase of 38.6% over this same time period, the projected energy consumption and related carbon emissions from the building sector are dramatically less than projected in 2005.

A movement that is making strides to reduce building energy consumption in the building sector is the 2030 Challenge. Developed by Architecture 2030, a non-profit organization dedicated to slowing and reversing the growth rate of greenhouse related emissions in the building sector, the program encourages the global architecture and building community to adopt various building energy reduction targets to achieve industry-wide zero net energy use by 2030.

To learn more about the 2030 Challenge, visit http://architecture2030.org/2030_chall
enge/the_2030_challenge. 

The latest version of Tekla’s free construction collaboration tool, Tekla BIMsight 1.4, is now available for use on the job site. The software offers a dedicated user interface for Windows tablet computers and features enhanced presentation tools. You can choose which interface is best suited for your working environment, desktop or tablet.

“We developed this version from conversations with our users and the industry and we will continue this practice in the future,” said Stephen Jones, Tekla BIMsight product manager. “Tablet computers are becoming an integral part of construction industry workflows and BIM creates huge opportunities for more effective interaction between the construction site and the office.”

Want to learn more?
Join Tekla’s free webinar tomorrow, January 26. This one-hour introductory presentation on BIMsight 1.4 will be hosted twice from Paris at 9 a.m. CET and 3 p.m. CET. You can search for which times the webinar begins in your time zone by visiting the registration site at http://bit.ly/z32Tsj. (ie 9 a.m. Eastern Time)

Learn more about the latest version of Tekla BIMsight and download the software for free at www.teklabimsight.com. Video tutorials and a customer support forum are also available on the website.

Daniel R. DiMicco, chairman and chief executive officer of Nucor Corporation, is the recipient of AISC’s prestigious Robert P. Stupp Award for Leadership Excellence. The award, presented on a selective basis by AISC, honors individuals who have provided unparalleled leadership in the steel construction industry. It will be presented to DiMicco at the 2012 NASCC: The Steel Conference at the Gaylord Texan Convention Center in Dallas, April 18-20.

“Dan is an exemplary leader in the steel construction industry and a strong advocate for domestic manufacturing jobs,” said Roger E. Ferch, P.E., AISC’s president. “He served as an instrumental ambassador of producer support on the AISC Board of Directors and has championed technological advancements in steelmaking and environmental leadership in the industry.”

For more information, you can read the press release on the AISC website at http://bit.ly/wiFLym.

Recently work on an innovative steel building project? Remember to enter it in AISC’s IDEAS2 Awards Program. Entries are being accepted through Tuesday, January 31, 2012, and there is no entry fee for AISC members.

More information about the program and how to enter can be found in our previous news post.

Phoenix-based Schuff Steel Company, an AISC member, has opened an office in Murray Hill, N.J., to provide steel fabrication and erection expertise to the metropolitan New York construction market. Executive vice president Stephen Isaacson is overseeing the new sales and management office, which was opened in December. Isaacson has been in the steel construction industry in the New York area for more than 35 years. A subsidiary of Schuff International, Inc., Schuff Steel plans to self-perform erection services in the New York City market, while providing fabricated steel from its existing facilities in the Midwest and Southeast regions.

For more information, you can read the press release on the Schuff Steel website at http://bit.ly/ze0TZh.

A 31-ft steel beam carries messages of hope from nearly 1,000 cancer survivors and family members at the OSU Medical Center expansion site. Click on the photo to link to a brief video of the beam erection and installation last December.

Ever wonder if anybody cares about that steel framework once the building is complete? Even though it may not be visible for long, the recently erected “Survivor Beam” at OSU is likely to hold a special place in the hearts of many for years to come.

More than 1,000 cancer survivors and family members inscribed wishes of strength and hope on the specially painted beam before it was hoisted into place on December 22, 2011, to become part of the new Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute and critical care tower, part of The Ohio State University Medical Center expansion project. The “Survivor Beam” was fabricated by AISC Member Cives Steel Company and erected by AISC Certified Erector Runyon Erectors.

You can watch a minute-long YouTube video showing people signing their messages on the beam and the beam rising to its special place on the building.

Scheduled to open in 2014, the $1.1 billion cancer hospital and critical care center involves 11,000 tons of structural steel that workers began erecting in August. When it opens, the 20-story, 1.1 million-sq.-ft building will be one of the 15 tallest hospitals in the U.S. and one of the 25 tallest in the world.

Learn more about the expansion project and its progress by viewing our previous news post from last November. You can also find current information, additional videos and a project timeline on the OSU Medical Center Expansion blog.

From left: Wolfgang Werner, Gunnar Hubbard and Robert DeScenza, president of Thornton Tomasetti.

Fore Solutions, a Portland, Me.-based green building consulting firm, has been acquired by the international engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti. The acquisition will allow Thornton Tomasetti to significantly expand its sustainability consulting services and integrate green objectives across all its practices. Gunnar Hubbard, AIA, LEED AP BD+C ID+C, Fore Solution’s principal and founder has become a principal at Thornton Tomasetti and will head its new Building Sustainability practice. Wolfgang Werner, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, formerly director of sustainability, becomes a vice president and head of the practice’s East U.S. region.

For more information, view Thornton Tomasetti’s press release at http://bit.ly/w7yVfc.

AISC’s live webinars are back! This year’s spring series begins on Thursday, February 2 with a presentation by James M. Fisher, P.E., Ph.D., vice president of Computerized Structural Design, Milwaukee, Wis., on Field Problems, Solutions, and Prevention. The 1.5-hour session begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Registration is by site, so any number of people within your office or organization can attend. The registration fee ($185 for AISC members, $285 for non-members, $155 for students and educators) includes:

• Access to a PDF file of the presentation slides prior to the live webinar.
• CEU/PDH certificates for all attendees upon completion (0.15 CEU / 1.5 PDH).
• Complete instructions for accessing the live webinar.

For more information about the webinar and to register now, click here.

To learn more about AISC’s live webinars, visit www.aisc.org/webinars.

If you missed last September’s live online presentation on “Practical Steel Metallurgy for the Structural Steel User,” presented by Doug Rees-Evans of Steel Dynamics, Inc., a recording of the webinar (includes a synchronization of the speaker’s voice along with the PowerPoint presentation) is still available for free online viewing on AISC’s website at http://bit.ly/o4QhwG. The presentation was originally given on SteelDay 2011 when it attracted a webinar attendance of nearly 1,400 individual connections. Upon completing the webinar, you can earn CEUs/PDHs by passing an online quiz available at no charge through the AISC Bookstore at http://bit.ly/pPyMQb.

Engineers are known to be masters of technical rigor, but according to engineering historian and author Henry Petroski, they cannot easily be leaders beyond this sphere without also having a sense of their own profession’s culture and traditions. His latest book, An Engineer’s Alphabet: Gleanings from the Softer Side of a Profession, calls attention to the importance of putting the quantitative engineer in touch with qualitative language and thought, emphasizing the importance of both sides of the brain to creative engineering.

In this abecedarian tome, Petroski presents a collection of anecdotes and factual entries covering various topics and concepts related to the practice and history of the engineering profession.

View sample pages and an Index from An Engineer’s Alphabet on Amazon.com at http://amzn.to/yNpTqC.

If you’re unfamiliar with Petroski, you can learn more about his industry accomplishments and the dozen other books he has written on Wikipedia at http://amzn.to/x0Z7RZ.

Note: A January 16 announcement on Wikipedia says the English-language Wikipedia will be blacked out for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18. Learn more about the planned protest at http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Engl
ish_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout.

The Mid-Continent Tower, a landmark 36-story office building in downtown Tulsa, Okla., has received the American Institute of Architect’s (AIA) 25 Year Award. The organization’s Eastern Oklahoma Chapter recently presented the award to the Tulsa office of Dewberry (then known as HTB), which designed the distinctive tower for then-owner Reading & Bates in the early 1980s.

One of the most challenging design and construction projects in the nation at the time, the Mid-Continent Tower was built adjacent to and above the historic 16-story Mid-Continent Building, also known as the Cosden Building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Reading & Bates, an energy resources company, owned the circa-1918 building and sought to expand the property to serve as its headquarters.

Because the existing building’s structural system would not support additional weight, Dewberry’s design concept called for constructing the tower’s base adjacent to the building to its full height, and then cantilevering over the building for an additional 20 stories. In all, 330,000 sq. ft were added to the original 90,000-sq.-ft building, aided by a series of five massive steel trusses, each weighing 230 tons.

“This was a unique project in my career,” says Vic Thompson, who designed the project and has been with the Tulsa office of Dewberry for 42 years. “There has never been another like it, before or since.”

You can read more about Thompson’s experience working on the project and learn where he found inspiration for his design in his blog post on Dewberry’s website at http://bit.ly/yYxVgr. (Part 2 of his post is also available at http://bit.ly/yHEzkh)

And guess what! We even have an article available in our MSC back issue archives from when the project was being built. You can read and download the feature, “Mid-Continent Tower: Key to Tudor-Gothic Revival,” on pages 5-10 in the PDF version of the 1983 Q4 edition.