Profiles in Steel

Architects and structural engineers today have access to an unprecedented range of steel building system options. Within your reach are system solutions that are tried-and-true as well as innovative and new. While certain systems may not be very familiar to you, they are all well proven in the building design and construction marketplace.

This course, developed as an easy-to-read article, will give you a working knowledge of today’s range of steel building systems, the market trends that are driving them, and the prevailing design and engineering criteria used for systems comparison and selection.

Learning Objectives

After reading this article, you should be able to:

• Identify the trends in the market that are driving structural steel building system innovation.
• Recognize how changes in the definition of sustainability bring deeper evaluations of cost and performance, with greater opportunities for improved project delivery.
• Know your steel building system options based on their structurally engineered distinctions, attributes, and optimal applications.
• Determine the prevailing design and engineering criteria for a given project to arrive at the right steel building system for that project.