​Chinatown Public Library in Chicago announced as the winner of Steel Design Award

Chosen from nearly 100 submissions, The Chinatown Public Library in Chicago, designed by Wight and Company and SOM, has earned national recognition in the 2017 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel awards program (IDEAS²). 

"The two-story, 16,370-sq.-ft building's interior space radiates from a central atrium, and the main structural beams are similarly arranged on a radius. Round hollow structural sections (HSS) were selected for the columns, as they provided a clean surface where several beams connect into a single point and also facilitated and simplified the non-orthogonal lateral bracing connections."

Project Credits:

Owner: City of Chicago
Architects: Wight and Company, Chicago; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Chicago
Structural Engineer: Drucker Zajdel Structural Engineers, Chicago (entered the project in the competition)
Construction Manager: Wight and Company, Chicago
Steel Fabricator: McFarlane Mfg., Sauk City, Wis. (AISC member / AISC certified)

Images courtesy of the 2017 IDEAS2 competition.