The steel sector is so excited about structural engineer Ron Klemencic’s composite steel superstructure, expected to speed office tower construction, that at least three steel fabricators are studying it, many months before erection is set to begin on Seattle’s 850-ft-tall “proof of concept.”

Structural engineer Ron Klemencic remembers May 2, 2011, as the “most devastating day” of his career.

As ENR’s 53rd Award of Excellence winner Ron Klemencic tells it, he answered the phone on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001, two days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and heard someone saying, “What are you going to do? This is Nadine Post from ENR. You’re the chairman of the tall buildings council. What are you going to do?”

What makes a project outstanding? To answer that question, every year, ENR invites teams from around the country to submit their best work to its regional Best Projects competitions, where it is judged on teamwork, safety, problem-solving, innovation and quality.

Fabricated at a former dry dock for World War II ships located near Baltimore, 11 concrete tubes—each 10 times larger than a subway car—were towed 220 miles down the Chesapeake Bay by tugboats to Portsmouth, Va., without incident.

In aspiring to create the first structure in California to meet the Living Building Challenge—and become one of only a handful of such projects around the globe—the team behind the Sacramento offices for Architectural Nexus confronted a steep learning curve. 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) describes the new Space Launch System—which will propel the agency’s Orion spacecraft to deep-space destinations—as being designed to be “flexible and evolvable” in order to accommodate varying sizes of rockets.

The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science overcame midcourse changes in the construction team and delays due to funding shortfalls. 

Construction on the 425-acre Hazlehurst Solar Facility wrapped up three months ahead of schedule, despite workforce challenges.

Tasked with building a high-security, blast-resistant structure on a steep slope, the design-builders of Los Angeles’ U.S. Courthouse had nowhere to go but up.