Ingenuity and precision propel five IDEAS² Awards winners for 2025

The five winning projects included in this year’s Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel (IDEAS²) Awards were announced recently by the American Institute of Steel Construction as part of the competition’s 65th overall edition.

This year, judges presented a special Presidential Award for Engineering Design and Construction to the popular Las Vegas Sphere. It joined noteworthy projects such as the MdeAS Architects-led redevelopment of the PENN 2 office building, which won the Excellence in Engineering Award. 

They will join other past winners in being featured in the upcoming May issue of Modern Steel Construction. More information about each of the 2025 projects can be viewed below.

IDEAS² Award for Excellence in Constructability - 200 Park in San Jose, Calif.

Architect: Gensler
Structural engineer: Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA)

Description: "The team behind a 1-million-sq-ft commercial building chose the composite SpeedCore system for cost-effectiveness, speed, and the ability to reduce wall thicknesses by up to 18 inches (around 30%, on average) — benefits that were compounded by new research that allowed them to omit most spray-on fireproofing. Close collaboration paid off at the jobsite, where not a single penetration required modification."

IDEAS² Award for Excellence in Engineering - PENN 2 Redevelopment

Architect: MdeAS Architects
Structural engineer: Severud Associates Consulting Engineers

Description: "The PENN 2 office building needed more inviting public spaces, improved office facilities, modern amenities, and updated aesthetics. The solution: A 75-ft by 450-ft addition to the fourth through 10th floors that hovers above the sidewalk on dramatically sloped columns configured around an existing trainshed. Particularly elegant connections ensure that neither the existing structure nor the addition transfer significant lateral load to the other."

IDEAS² Award for Excellence in Architecture - Pima Community College – Advanced Manufacturing Center 

Architect/structural engineer: DLR Group

Description: "This three-story facility is a working model of how industry works, complete with a functioning 10-ton underslung crane that doubles as a major design feature. It’s an excellent example of how seamlessly building design, building purpose, and structural elements can combine to create an elevated experience for the students while providing a prime example of attention to detail."

IDEAS² Award for Excellence in Adaptive Reuse - Top of the Rock Redevelopment

Architect: Montroy DeMarco Architecture (MDA)
Structural engineer: Gilsanz Murray Steficek

Description: "The idea of installing attractions at the top of a 90-year-old urban icon is enough to make anyone’s stomach drop, but the team behind New York City’s Top of the Rock Redevelopment pulled it off (at a hugely complex and challenging jobsite, no less). Some 40,000 tons of steel reinforcement give tourists a new way to connect with the modern skyline as well as the city’s past as they recreate an iconic photograph that continues to define early 20th-century high-rise construction."

Presidential Award for Engineering Design and Construction - Sphere, Las Vegas

Architect: Populous
Structural engineer: Severud Associates Consulting Engineers

Description: "Groundbreaking steel innovations, an instantly iconic exosphere, and a finely tuned interior come together in a structure that redefines both the present and future of immersive entertainment—and it’s also the largest spherical structure in the world."

The jury for this year's (IDEAS²) Awards included Jill Lavine, Founding Principal, FIFTEEN Architecture + Design; Jeremy Loebs, Business Development Executive, Schuff Steel; Rob Martinelli, Senior Vice President, Operations, Pepper Construction; Fraser Reid, Associate Principal, Buro Happold; and Nima Balasubramanian, Director of Architecture, AISC.