Steel in the News

Turner Construction Company recently announced the early completion of the $465 million Global Center for Health Innovation and Cleveland Convention Center building program; completed three months ahead of the original schedule and millions under budget.

About 12,200 tons of structural steel went into the project. Schuff Steel (an AISC member and AISC certified fabricator) coordinated the fabrication of the $40 million contract across 15 plants in the U.S., including two of its own.

To learn more about the structural steel used for the project, you can watch this three-minute YouTube video (posted in early April during steel erection; note that the steel tonnage has been updated since).

To coordinate a project of this size and scope at a busy downtown site, Turner worked closely with the property owner, Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., as well as 168 local SBE contractors. A combination of collaborative partnerships, sustainable practices and innovative technology helped Turner pre-plan every step of the construction process, saving both time and money on Cleveland’s largest construction project to date.

“Turner was able to complete this project ahead of schedule because of our collaboration with MMPI and other partners,” said John Dewine, construction project executive at Turner. “By working together with local contractors and using technology like BIM, we were able to identify creative ways to save time and money.”

Turner broke ground for the project in January 2011 and completed construction earlier this month. Covering 14.6 acres in downtown Cleveland, the facility spans more than one million sq. ft. The Global Center for Health Innovation fills 235,000 sq. ft with showroom, ballroom and retail space. The Cleveland Convention Center, at 767,000 sq. ft underground, features exhibit halls, flexible meeting rooms and column-free ballroom space.

During the first 12 months of the project, Turner recycled almost 99 percent of the demolition material and has recycled more than 2,600 cubic yards of construction waste. While the initial goal was to be 20 percent more energy efficient than baseline, the project is currently at nearly 30 percent above baseline. The project is pursuing LEED Silver certification.

The Cleveland Convention Center will open for its first event next month, and the Global Center for Health Innovation will host its first event in October. To learn more about the project, visit www.clevelandmedicalmart.com.

Make your structural steel visions come to life! How? By entering AISC’s third annual Steel Sculpture Competition!

If you’re an AISC full or associate member, join this year’s competition and create your own innovative steel sculpture for a chance to have your company featured in MSC and more.

Here are the rules:

• The sculpture must be steel (and only steel), but shapes, sizes and steel type can be your personal preference.
• The sculpture must be made entirely by your staff.
• The finished sculpture must fit in a 2-ft by 2-ft by 2-ft box (for shipping purposes).
• All entries must include a title and the name of the company submitting the project.
• There's no theme! But keep in mind the characteristics of steel: adaptable, economical, quick and sustainable.

Submit photos of your sculpture by September 13, 2013 to AISC’s Jenny McDonald at mcdonald@aisc.org.

From September 16-27, all entries will be posted to AISC’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AISCdotORG) where they’ll be voted on by fans. The top five finalists will be put on display at the 2014 NASCC: The Steel Conference, March 26-29 in Toronto, where the ultimate winner will be chosen by attendees. The winner will also be featured in MSC and receive a catered lunch for their company.

Learn more about the competition at www.steelday.org/sculpturecomp.

Check out this year’s winning sculpture: “Steel Life-Cycle” (pictured left).

The competition is part of SteelDay, the structural steel industry’s largest educational and networking event, held nationwide. It’s scheduled for October 4 this year; mark your calendars! If you’re interested in hosting or attending an event, visit www.steelday.org.

Student team members from the University of Washington College of Engineering - the home team in this year’s National Student Steel Bridge Competition finals, held earlier this month - hustle to construct their steel bridge under the pressure of the clock. Photo: AISC

For the second consecutive year, a team of students from the University of California, Berkeley (pictured left), have been named champions in the 2013 ASCE/AISC National Student Steel Bridge Competition (NSSBC), which took place May 31-June 1 at the University of Washington’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Seattle.

Also for the second straight year, second place overall went to the team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. University of California, Davis, took third place overall.

About 600 students from 49 qualifying teams convened to showcase their engineering skills in the competition finals. This inter-collegiate competition challenges civil engineering students to work together to design, fabricate and construct their own scaled steel bridges in the shortest time and under specific building constraints.

The bridges were judged in six key categories related to steel design and construction: construction speed; stiffness; lightness; construction economy; display; and efficiency. The teams with the best combined rankings across all six categories earn overall award recognition.

To view the top three winners in each category, see AISC’s press release. The complete competition rankings can be found at www.nssbc.info.

You can also view photos from this year’s competition on AISC’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/AISCdotORG in the “NSSBC 2013” photo album. A video showing highlights from the competition will soon be available on AISC’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/AISCSteelTV.

Next year’s NSSBC will be held May 23-24 at the University of Akron in Ohio. To learn more about the NSSBC, visit www.aisc.org/steelbridge or www.nssbc.info.

Are you as excited about the new “Man of Steel” movie as we are? It opens in cinemas everywhere tomorrow, June 14.

Based on the DC Comics character Superman, the film will be a reboot of the Superman film series, portraying the character’s origin story. (You can read more about the film on Wikipedia.)

The movie was filmed in the Chicago area, including some downtown locations not too far from AISC’s headquarters.

AISC’s Scott Melnick’s editorial from the January 1993 issue of MSC is called “The Man of Steel,” and you can learn how he came up with this Superman slogan: "They don't call him the Man of Concrete."

You still have time to register for AISC’s live webinar happening tomorrow, June 13, focused on “Design of Diaphragms, Chords, and Collectors in Steel-Framed Buildings.”

The design of a lateral system for a building is not complete without a complete path delivering the load to the braced frames, moment frames or shear walls. Diaphragms serve this important function, providing the load path while also restraining the gravity system against sway buckling.

This live webinar will review the types of diaphragms often found in steel-framed buildings as well as the components of diaphragms. Special diaphragm strength requirements in ASCE 7 and special requirements for chords and collectors will be reviewed and design methodologies for diaphragm components will be presented.

The 1.5-hour webinar will begin at the following times, relative to time zone:

Noon PDT
1 p.m. MDT
2 p.m. CDT
3 p.m. EDT

The cost of the webinar is $185 for AISC members, $285 for non-members and $155 for students and educators. (Fees are based on a per-site connection basis. Purchase one site connection and any number of members in your company or organization may view the webinar at that site connection. All attendees are eligible to receive CEUs/PDHs.)

Registrants will receive access to a PDF file of the presentation slides prior to the webinar, CEU/PDH certificates for all attendees upon completion of the live webinar (0.15 CEUs/1.5 PDHs) and complete instructions for accessing the live webinar.

Partial funding for this webinar is provided by the California and Vicinity Steel Information Council (CVSIC).

To register for the live webinar and learn more about other upcoming AISC webinars, visit www.aisc.org/webinars.