Steel-timber composite system proposed for mid- and high-rise buildings

A new report and a video presentation support the concept of a steel and timber composite system for mid- and high-rise buildings.

The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) recently released the report which proposes a system consisting of structural steel columns and beams that support a Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) floor system, creating a flat soffit condition. AISC and SOM partnered to study the combination of steel and CLT with an eye toward residential construction.

“AISC and SOM’s study successfully shows that the comparative steel-timber composite construction system could also be competitive in the high-rise residential market,” according to a news release. The steel and timber framing system builds on SOM’s Timber Tower Research Project that studied timber-concrete composite construction for a hypothetical high-rise building.

The report, “AISC Steel and Timber Research for High Rise Residential Buildings - Final Report,” and a video presentation by Benton Johnson, PE, SE, LEED Green Associate, senior structural engineer at SOM, titled, “Your Next Project Considering Steel & Timber Research for Residential Buildings,” are available for free at www.aisc.org/timberresearch.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.