Architecture Center
In This Section
Steel: The Obvious Choice
With all of steel's advantages, it's hard to know where to start sometimes!
AISC has compiled resources that highlight six things that set steel apart from every other structural material on the market. These are true differentiating factors.
Adaptability
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New needs? No problem. Steel's unsurpassed durability means that your structure can reinvent itself to meet an unanticipated modification. Maximize open space today and easily adapt it for future needs. No other material can match steel's flexibility and value when it comes to adaptive reuse.
Quality
“Close enough” just doesn’t cut it. You need built-in quality standards to ensure consistent performance from your fabricated structural material. Structural steel is a reliable choice because it has the most robust quality certification program out there, which is designed to prevent errors instead of correcting them. |
Speed
Supercharge your project schedule with structural steel. From start to finish, you can design, fabricate, and construct a steel building 50% faster now than you could just a few years ago. A fabricator can work on your steel package during site preparation and foundation work. Steel will arrive at the jobsite as soon as it’s needed, and erection takes place at lightning speed in any season. |
Cost
American structural steel offers the best value for your investment. Structural steel is an incredibly economical choice because its offsite fabrication streamlines the construction process, saving time and money. Bring a structural steel fabricator onto your project team early to save around 70% on your steel package! |
Resilience
No other material can absorb and recover from an extreme event as well as steel does. Given its inherent durability, strength, and elasticity, a structural steel framing system can withstand the pounding of hurricane-force winds, stormwater surges and intruding flood waters, and earthquake destruction to keep people and their communities safe. |
Sustainability
All structural hot-rolled sections produced in the U.S. are made in electric arc furnaces, which use electricity to melt cars, refrigerators, decommissioned bridges, and other scrap into new steel without any loss of quality. In fact, American structural steel is 93% recycled and 100% recyclable. Instead of going to the landfill or an incinerator, decommissioned bridges and buildings go right back into the supply chain to become steel again and again. Only steel can do that. |
Looking for a quick comparison? See how structural steel stacks up to other building materials!