The 150 N. Riverside office tower in Chicago has earned national recognition in the 2018 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel awards program (IDEAS2). In honor of this achievement, members of the project team were presented with awards from AISC during a ceremony that took place at the building yesterday.
"You are not going to see a tour de force like this project often," commented Brian Falconer, SE, PE, a principal with Severud Associates Consulting Engineers, P.C., New York, and the engineer juror in the competition.
The 54-story, 1.25-million-sq.-ft, Class A office tower has captured national attention, thanks to its elevated perch at the edge of the Chicago River, its span across seven active Amtrak lines and its construction of the largest steel sections in the world. And, most obviously, its shape is unlike anything the city has seen in one of its skyscrapers. The building features a very narrow structure at its base and a compact footprint that gradually extends diagonally to highly efficient, column-free floors above.
The building used 65- and 70-ksi high-strength steel, strategically located to provide the most economical steel frame. The 65-ksi steel was used to eliminate standard pre-heat requirements for columns with shop welded moment connections, and the project boasts the first use of 70-ksi rolled steel sections in the U.S.
The project’s team members include:
- Owner: Riverside Investment and Development, Chicago
- Structural Engineer: Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Inc., Seattle
- Architect: Goettsch Partners, Chicago
- General Contractor: Clark Construction, Chicago
- Steel Fabricator: Zalk Josephs Fabricators, LLC, Stoughton, Wis. (AISC member/AISC certified)
- Steel Erector: Chicago Steel Construction, LLC, Merrillville, Ind. (AISC member/AISC certified)
- Steel Detailer: Ken Boitz and Associates, Inc., Bloomingdale, Ill. (AISC member)
"This building is a monument to the skills and savvy of the engineers and steel fabricator who used the capabilities of steel to make an impossible site possible," said Charlie Carter, SE, PE, PhD, president of AISC.
For more on all of this year's IDEAS2 award winners, see “2018 IDEAS2 Awards” in our May issue.
AISC is accepting entries for the 2019 IDEAS2 competition at www.aisc.org/ideas2. The entry deadline is SteelDay, September 28, 2018.
(Photo at right: MKA, Michael Dickter)