Colorado

Once you’ve won the construction project, completed the back-slapping, fist bumps and high fives with your team, it’s time to get down to business. You know your final victory lap won’t happen until you’ve completed the project...

Should you care if your construction steel supplier goes to the heavy expense and trouble to become AISC certified? That depends. Do you want your job to proceed efficiently and safely? 

When designing with structural steel, does it have to be all straight runs, angles and joints?

When pondering natural hazard in Colorado, we might think of lightning strikes, violent hailstorms, wind, blizzards, flash floods, meteorites and maybe even Bigfoot. But the number one natural hazard, according to the Colorado Geological Survey, actually comes from the ground. 

Few things cause as much excitement and anxiety as planning a new home from the ground up. It's your chance to create the perfect living space according to your dreams and budget. 

By late 2017, construction industry leaders predicted that the Colorado Front Range economy would continue to boom throughout 2018. So it has.

It's nice to have options. New construction can incorporate a number of structural support elements, the basic three being steel, wood or concrete. 

Structural design is all about calculating loads. The engineering firm Nishkian offers a succinct description: "Loads are commonly understood as forces that cause stresses, deformations, or accelerations. 

The child's game of Tiddlywinks demonstrates the principles of eccentric loads. When certain property and design limitations result in offset centers of gravity between a column or wall and its footing pad, you need to engage a balancing act. 

Every pound counts in architectural design. The more materials used, the more expensive the building. However, too little material results in a weak edifice.