Structural Engineers
While this building was initially programmed to be four stories of steel framing with a penthouse spanning 80K SF, FEG was tasked with reworking it into a three-story building with 60K SF and no penthouse during the design phase. The open floor plan and windows around the perimeter of the building drove the lateral design to be moment frames and to reduce steel tonnage (total tonnage: ~350 tons) and save erection time, the recently developed bolted SidePlate® moment connection was used to totally eliminate all field welding, making this FEG's first building to utilize it.
The design architect and MEP engineers were Peterson Associates, and the contractor, Robins & Morton, was hired as a CM@Risk. FEG approached them with their new process and was approved to provide the Complete Structural Package™, including design for bidding the fabricators at the completion of Construction Documents. The structural model was shared with the detailer during design several times, and when the project scope was modified further to a three-story building, about 85% of the detailing had been completed. FEG elected not to provide concurrent shop drawings for the redesign project but instead provided a structural BIM takeoff (including SidePlate and base plate material) for the fabricators to bid. After discussing their (modified) process with the bidding fabricators, they started working with CM Steel when they were notified to proceed.
We met with CM Steel within a week to discuss their shop and fabrication preferences – sheet sizes for erection plans and details, connection preferences, equipment specifications, sequencing, etc. The final “for fabrication” package was delivered to CM Steel only six (6) weeks after their notice to proceed – a significant time savings over the traditional process. Consistent with FEG's track record, there were no RFIs related to the structural steel during the preparation of the fabrication package, and their team handled coordination entirely. There was, however, a significant design discrepancy discovered after the project was awarded. CM Steel has elected to do the stair detailing in-house and discovered that the number of treads and risers did not match the floor plan and stair section. Over two days and several phone calls, FEG coordinated with the architect and simply called the stair detailer with a revised dimension. Imagine how long and the amount of wasted effort that would have been taken with the traditional approach – a key benefit of our process.
“This [process] was by far the best experience I have had in a long time. [The elimination of the RFI process] saved a tremendous amount of time.”
– Greg Sain, Project Manager, CM Steel
