National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion Wins National Building Design Award

National -

June 16, 2016

June 14, 2016 from American Institute of Steel Construction

Chicago, IL – (RealEstateRama) — The National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion in New York’s Lower Manhattan has earned national recognition in the 2016 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel awards program (IDEAS2). In honor of this achievement, members of the project team will be presented with awards from the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) during a ceremony to take place at the pavilion on Thursday, June 16, at 5 p.m.

The pavilion is a striking presence on the memorial site not only because of its dramatic, angular structure and prominently displayed steel tridents, but also because it is the only above-ground portion of the museum.

“Wow, the design team got it right on this one. A powerful and humbling project,” commented Brian Wessel, general manager of Cives Steel Co. – Midwest Division, Wolcott, Ind. (an AISC Member / Certified fabricator) and the steel fabricator juror in the competition.

While it protrudes four stories into the air, the remainder of the facility, including two pools that represent the footprints of the original World Trade Center towers, are all below-grade. The 47,600-sq.-ft cultural facility orients visitors within memorial grounds, acting as an entry point to the museum and belying the complexity of the site.

The project was entered in the competition by its structural engineer, BuroHappold Engineering, New York. The other members of the project team include:

Owner: National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center
Architects: Snøhetta, New York; Adamson Associates International, New York
General Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease, New York
Steel Fabricator, Erector and Detailer: AFCO / W&W Steel, Oklahoma City, Okla. (AISC Member / Certified fabricator and erector)

The pavilion is a National award winner in the category of projects Over $75 Million, making it one of only five projects around the country to receive the National honor. Each project is judged on its use of structural steel from both an architectural and structural engineering perspective, with an emphasis on: creative solutions to project’s program requirements; applications of innovative design approaches in areas such as connections, gravity systems, lateral load resisting systems, fire protection and blast; aesthetic and visual impact of the project; innovative use of architecturally exposed structural steel (AESS); technical or architectural advances in the use of the steel; and the use of innovative design and construction methods.

The 10 IDEAS2 winners for 2016 were chosen from nearly 100 submissions received from architectural and engineering and other project team member firms throughout the U.S. Each submission is reviewed and award winners are selected by a nationally recognized panel of design and construction industry professionals.

The IDEAS2 award dates back more than 50 years with AISC. And about this year’s winning pavilion, Roger E. Ferch, P.E., president of AISC, said, “The entire National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion project team has shown how structural steel can be used to create structures that combine beauty and structural integrity. The result is a structure that will serve its users extremely well, while providing an example of what can be achieved when designing and constructing projects with steel.”

Members of the media may request high-resolution images of the pavilion by contacting AISC’s Tasha Weiss at 312.670.5439 or . For more information about the IDEAS2 awards and to view all of this year’s winners, please visit www.aisc.org/ideas2.

American Institute of Steel Construction
The American Institute of Steel Construction, headquartered in Chicago, is a not-for-profit technical institute and trade association established in 1921 to serve the structural steel design community and construction industry. AISC’s mission is to make structural steel the material of choice by being the leader in structural steel-related technical and market-building activities, including: specification and code development, research, education, technical assistance, quality certification, standardization, and market development. AISC has a long tradition of service to the steel construction industry of providing timely and reliable information.