Yeah, I was going to mention that steel provides for longer spans/bays, which are big selling points of new office space.
Something I found odd, though, is that there is a new high-rise hospital tower going up here in Lansing. It's only 9 stories (140 something feet, and 180 something overall), and they used concrete for all floors but the top floor in which they framed in steel. I found it very odd and was told that the construction company wanted to use steel, but the hospital insisted on concrete and as a compromise the construction company found out how much concrete they could use to get a steel floor out of this. It still didn't make any sense to me how this worked, and it looks odd.
*EDIT* - I just found out why they did the top floor of this hospital tower in steel, and it's because the original 3-story podium completed at the end of 2005, was framed in steel (I'd totally forgot), and the hospital insisted on concrete for the remaining 6 stories, but it was found that the steel podium couldn't handle more than 5 concrete-framed floors, so the top was completed with steel to minimize the street on the podium.
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Where the trees are the right height
Last edited by LMich; Dec 28, 2006 at 12:03 AM.
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