AISC has released the latest revision of one of its flagship standards, the Code of Standard Practice for Steel Buildings and Bridges (ANSI/AISC 303-22).

The document is now available as a free download at aisc.org/2022code.

“The 2022 AISC Code of Standard Practice is the result of a tremendous effort by the committee over the last six years,” said Babette Freund, chair of the AISC Committee on the Code of Standard Practice. “Of special note is the work of a joint task group that harmonized terminology and coordinated requirements between the 2022 AISC Code and the 2022 AISC Specification for Structural Steel Buildings, a major development in this latest edition.”

Six international steel manufacturers, including AISC member fabricators Nucor Corporation and Steel Dynamics, Inc. (SDI), have formed a new coalition to establish and promote a global steel standard that leads toward a cleaner future. The coalition, named the Global Steel Climate Council (GSCC), is a nonprofit association dedicated to sharing best practices, establishing standards, and advocating for carbon emissions reductions by members of the steel industry.

The specific purposes of the GSCC include supporting technology-agnostic reduction methods that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the global steel industry; creating a system boundary that includes Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions; and adopting a science-based glidepath to achieve a 1.5 degree Celsius scenario by 2050.

“Hugh’s work was instrumental in CISC’s success,” said Scott Melnick, senior vice president at AISC. “Hugh was well known for his honesty and candor, as well as his dedication to Canada and commitment to the standards development process. Under his leadership, AISC and CISC worked on many projects together, including the North American Steel Construction Conference (now known as NASCC: The Steel Conference).”

Hot-rolled structural steel is the greenest structural material on the market, thanks to its unsurpassed recycled content and ability to be recycled into new steel, over and over again, with no loss of properties.

It's an obvious choice for the Buy Clean movement, which advocates for environmental properties that encourage the use of products and materials with a smaller carbon footprint.

But the industry is complex. That's why the American Institute of Steel Construction has released a series of guidelines to help legislators leverage everything structural steel has to offer for sustainable design and construction.

In a ceremony held on October 28 at the University of Minnesota, AISC dedicated the 2022 edition of its Specification for Structural Steel Buildings (ANSI/AISC 360) to longtime volunteer and structural behavior research pioneer Theodore (Ted) V. Galambos. This dedication honors Galambos’ service on the AISC Committee on Specifications and several of its Task Committees since 1956. His pivotal research and publications on the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) method transformed the AISC Specification, which was most recently updated in 2016.

PartILLATION: Visions in Steel, a traveling art exhibition celebrating steel in the built environment, debuted Wednesday, October 12, at the Architecture Center Houston (ArCH). The exhibition curates photography and other work of visual artists from across the country to introduce visitors to steelworkers and their trade through portraiture, interviews, sound, and video.

Its name, PartILLATION, is a created word that borrows from the idea of it being a mix of art and installation. Owing to the latter, the centerpiece of PartILLATION is a tunnel that uses video-projected images and soundscapes to immerse visitors in a steel fabrication facility and to learn from the expertise of architects through a series of interview vignettes explaining the strong ties between design and steel.

AISC is proud to present the 2023 T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award to Jennifer McConnell, PhD, of the University of Delaware.

McConnell has conducted groundbreaking research into the performance of uncoated weathering steel (UWS) in bridges. Her work incorporates long-term field data on the performance of steel structures and corrosion protection methods in various environments and includes an analysis of practical design strategies that improve corrosion resistance.

For the past three decades, many young professionals were fortunate to share a truly remarkable experience: When they attended their first AISC committee meetings, a prominent researcher would take them under their wing, introducing them to key contacts, and setting them up with valuable connections that would serve them well for the rest of their careers.

Who was that good Samaritan? Reidar Bjorhovde.

The AISC Education Foundation is proud to honor his inspiring legacy by establishing the Reidar Bjorhovde Outstanding Young Professional Award. It’s designed to do precisely what he used to do at those meetings, but on a larger scale.

Since the 1960s, Departments of Transportation around the country have taken advantage of a remarkably sustainable, efficient, economical building material: uncoated weathering steel, or UWS.

The new Uncoated Weathering Steel Reference Guide, developed by Modjeski and Masters, offers bridge designers and owners everything they need to take full advantage of this efficient and low-maintenance corrosion protection system, from design to detailing to fabrication to construction to inspection and beyond.

"This guide will provide much-needed support for owners and designers alike on the use of weathering steel, in particular on the suitability of the use of weathering steel at a specific bridge site," said Thomas Murphy, PE, SE, PhD, senior vice president and director of the national bridge group, CTO, and Board Chair at Modjeski and Masters.