Structural Engineering Excellence (SEE) Awards recognize the most innovative and creative achievements in structural engineering. Presented annually by NCSEA, these prestigious awards honor projects that showcase ingenuity, technical skill, and groundbreaking design in the field.
Each year, structural engineers and engineering firms are invited to submit their projects, demonstrating excellence in structural design, engineering achievement, and creativity. From towering buildings to intricate bridges, the SEE Awards celebrate the remarkable work that shapes our built environment.
2024 Structure of the Year
Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) – Magnusson Klemencic Associates
2024 SEE Awards Finalists
SEE Awards Finalists are selected for their innovative designs, engineering achievements, and meaningful contributions to the built environment.
From these outstanding projects, eight category winners were chosen to compete for the prestigious 2024 Structure of the Year award. The winner, Perelman Performing Arts Center by Magnusson Klemencic Associates, was revealed at the 2024 NCSEA Structural Engineering Summit. For the first time, the award selection combined votes from the NCSEA Awards Committee and members of the structural engineering community.
New Buildings Under $30 Million
OUTSTANDING STRUCTURE | Fraser Mills Presentation Centre
StructureCraft
The Presentation Centre at Fraser Mills exemplifies innovative mass timber systems through its inventive structural engineering and community-focused design. Valued at $10M, the Centre serves as a key destination for the 96-acre Fraser Mills development in greater Vancouver, Canada. The building features a distinctive swooping form supported by 26 unique glulam frames, spanning up to 70 feet between cantilevered glulam columns and 33-foot high splayed columns. The complex geometry of each frame required advanced software, including Rhino, Grasshopper, and Karamba, to translate into manufacturable components from plywood and sawn purlins. Notably, the Centre is among the first in British Columbia to use cantilevered glulam columns for lateral support. All timber elements are crafted from locally sourced Douglas Fir, with manufacturing within 500 miles, highlighting a successful local initiative.
Oregon State University Cascades Edward J. Ray Hall
catena consulting engineers
Edward J. Ray Hall at Oregon State University is a four-story, 50,000-square-foot mass timber building featuring cross-laminated timber (CLT) decking, glued-laminated timber columns and beams, and a mass plywood panel (MPP) monumental stair. Constructed on a steep slope, it required 40 feet of fill and compliance with Seismic Design Category D. The design team, experienced in mass timber, used proprietary connectors validated through proof-load testing for concealed timber connections, facilitating ease of placement and erection. To counteract long-term creep deflections, the design incorporates composite behavior using advanced methods. The monumental stair utilizes locally sourced MPP for its inclined stringers, treads, and benches. Timber includes 40% restoration and 14% from Native-owned forests, supporting sustainability and regional economic goals, contributing to the building’s Net Zero target. The regular form and repetitive framing reduce fabrication costs and enhance labor efficiency, aligning with OSU’s prototype goals.
U.S. Coast Guard Academy – Maritime Center of Excellence
A+F Engineers
The Maritime Center of Excellence, a 20,000 GSF LEED Gold certified building, is situated on the USCG Academy waterfront in New London, CT. Designed to reflect maritime heritage and serve educational and operational needs, this facility features a distinctive roof-oriented northward, echoing traditional navigation. The structural design integrates a hybrid system of steel frames and glulam arches, each uniquely shaped, supporting a massive, cantilevered roof. Engineered to withstand hurricane-level winds and flooding, it employs a combination of steel and wood moment frames alongside concrete shear walls. A+F Engineers crafted this structure to merge architectural elegance with robust, functional engineering, exemplifying practical and efficient design.
New Buildings $30 Million to $80 Million
Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building
SmithGroup
The Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building (DMMIB), part of a 4-acre medical research complex, features a creative structural design to support advanced research and patient care. Key elements include concrete cyclotron vaults and a delay maze constructed with a “box within a box” approach to contain radiation. A tighter column grid on the south side enhances vibration performance for sensitive equipment. The structure uses a 30-foot x 30-foot grid with steel and composite floor framing, supported by nine sloped columns. These columns, which accommodate vehicle access and fit within the grid, have a maximum 15-degree slope. The design prioritizes cost-effectiveness and low embodied carbon. Collaboration with P3 partners was crucial for system selection and construction, including adapting materials and addressing additional loads from the sloped columns and site.
OUTSTANDING STRUCTURE | BCIT Tall Timber Student Housing
Fast + Epp
The new Tall Timber Student Housing tower at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Burnaby, British Columbia represents a shift forward in tall, hybrid, encapsulated mass timber construction. The 12-story tower is the first of the next generation of point-supported CLT structures, comprising of flat, two-way spanning Hem-Fir material cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor plates, point-supported on steel columns without beams. The use of local Hem-fir CLT at a large width of 11′-6″, supported on steel HSS columns, and punching shear reinforcing screws to increase column line spacing, represents a step forward in tall, hybrid structures. The lateral-resisting cores utilize concentrically braced frames, set in self-stabilizing configurations that are shop-installed in 5- and 6-story lifts to further reduce construction time. Utilizing the latest advances in engineered wood products, pre-fabrication, and encapsulation strategies, this project represents significant progress in the field of hybrid-mass timber buildings.
University of Washington Health Sciences Education Building
KPFF Consulting Engineers
The Health Sciences Education Building was the University of Washington’s first installation of cross-laminated timber (CLT), which also used a hybrid structure to create an inspirational learning environment for future generations of healthcare professionals. The structure combined the benefits of wood and the long-span capacity of composite steel to achieve large, open spaces, while maintaining the health, aesthetic, and sustainability benefits of wood. KPFF teamed with the University of Washington to perform strength and vibration testing for the composite floors. This allowed the design to push beyond the prescriptive limits of the building code and will improve the efficiency of future CLT projects.
New Buildings $80 Million to $200 Million
Alcove – 900 Church
DeSimone Consulting Engineering
Alcove is a new, 34-story, 416-foot-tall residential tower in downtown Nashville. The design consists of stacked, shifted cubes organized in pairs, creating four alcoves that host a variety of exterior amenities. The offset stacking required the design of numerous, differently sized, post-tensioned concrete floor plates as the alcoves create alternating openings within the varying tiers. The alternating floor stacks created the need for cantilevered, downturned concrete overhangs, or “mini roofs,” at the alcove floors to complete the transition. On the 34th-floor rooftop, modern amenities include two pools: a traditional deck and saltwater pool, and a clear acrylic-bottomed pool that dramatically overhangs the 27th-floor amenity terrace on the west side of the building, extending eight feet beyond the structure and 34 stories above the street below. To maximize the span of the cantilever, DeSimone designed this area of the structure with post-tensioned concrete.
One River North
Jirsa Hedrick Structural Engineers
One River North is a 17-story tower featuring a canyon-like facade resembling a slot canyon in Denver, Colorado. The multifamily project includes over 7,000 square feet of outdoor amenities, such as undulating planters, multilevel stairways, and a two-level waterfall. The structure is cast-in-place concrete with post-tensioned floors. Unique structural challenges included each floor’s distinct geometry and loading requirements for the canyon features, wind loading necessitating steel link beams in the core walls, and massive transfer slabs and beams for building offsets. Coordination with MAD Architects and Davis Partnership through multiple BIM models ensured design intent was preserved. The construction phase demanded intensive administration, field question resolution, and frequent site visits to accurately implement the complex design features.
OUTSTANDING STRUCTURE | FORTH Hotel
Uzun+Case, LLC
The Fourth Ward Social Club & Hotel located in Atlanta, Georgia is 3 levels underground and 16 above ground. The hotel featured the exterior “diagrid” column system. Other than the exposed exterior load-bearing diagrid columns, there are only three interior columns and the shear wall. Architecturally, the diagrid columns were to be placed forward of the slab edge to express the diagrid. The building diagrid corners at the top and bottom “folded” inward to create a real three-dimensional complexity to the design. Slab punching shear and diagrid tension forces in the slab made this a project with complex detailing and close attention to construction methods.
New Buildings Over $200 Million
STRUCTURE OF THE YEAR | Perelman Performing Arts Center
Magnusson Klemencic Associates
The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) enhances the World Trade Center site with its unique cultural presence. By day, its marble-and-glass façade is understated, but by night, it reveals its versatility. The PAC NYC three main theaters and two adjoining “scene docks” transform into 11 different theater volumes and 60-plus seating configurations, thanks to four retractable, acoustically isolated, gigantic “guillotine” walls. Seven unique below-grade “interventions” were designed to combine multiple support points and connect them to seven above-grade “super columns” (with up to 20 times more capacity than typical building columns). These seven super columns alone support the entire above-grade 6,300 ton superstructure. A marvel of engineering, PAC NYC combines security, blast design, and storm resilience, establishing new standards for flexible performance spaces. The 129,000 square-foot facility is a beacon of cutting-edge structural design and engineering creativity.
Sphere
Severud Associates
Sphere, located just east of the Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a 516-ft-diameter semi-spherical building rising 366 ft above ground with a bowl-shaped theater for 17,600 guests, seated beneath a domed roof and suspended media plane. The team studied several alternate configurations that would facilitate fabrication and erection and finally arrived at a hybrid solution of 14 horizontal continuous ring members and 32 pairs of crisscrossing diagonal geodesic elements, continuous between the base and a ring near the crown. The topmost framing, known as the Oculus, is framed radially. The Exosphere, the venue’s outer latticed grid shell, is composed of steel pipe sections and cast connecting nodes covered with 580,000 sq ft of programmable LED lighting, which presents stunning visual displays. Although Sphere is composed of distinct structural systems, they are all interconnected to form a cohesive, balanced, efficient, and elegant superstructure. Sphere elevates the theater experience to the next level and thanks to collaboration and creativity advances the state of the art of structural engineering as well.
Hangzhou Greenland Century Center
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
The Greenland Hangzhou Century Center, located just outside of Shanghai, between Hangzhou’s International Expo Center and Olympic Sports Center, is an iconic landmark with its two 302-meter twin towers connected by a gracefully ‘draped’ skybridge. The building’s unique enclosure on the bridge is a parametrically achieved feat of architecture and engineering, creating a geometrically complex curtain wall that resembles a single veil gently draping over the soaring towers and bridge. The design process involved meticulous selection of the bridge and roof shape, resulting in nearly flat glass across the complex. Custom digital tools and close collaboration between design and technical teams ensured the successful integration of geometry and structure.
New Bridge and Transportation Structures
Second Avenue Over I-94 Network Tied Arch Bridge
HDR
Built between 1947 and 1959, Interstate 94 was one of Michigan’s earliest highways, linking more than 100 auto companies to westward factories in Detroit, Michigan. The $2.9 billion I-94 Modernization Project aims to reconstruct this busy freeway, handling 175,000 vehicles daily. The Michigan Department of Transportation envisioned a bridge without a center pier to enhance the area visually. The Second Avenue Bridge employs innovative accelerated construction methods to minimize traffic disruption and introduces Michigan’s first network-tied arch design and self-propelled modular transporter (SPMT). The new bridge retains two driving lanes, adds sidewalks and bike lanes, and includes native landscaping and aesthetic lighting. Constructed off-site, the 5-million-pound structure was moved and lowered over the freeway, featuring a vertical curve and 18-degree skew.
The New Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge
AECOM
The New Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge (FDMB) project transforms Washington DC’s South Capitol Street corridor into an iconic, grand, urban boulevard underscoring Major Pierre L’Enfant’s 1791 Plan of the City of Washington. Replacing a deteriorating structure, the FDMB features a unique multi-arch design over the Anacostia River, flanked by park-like transit ovals. The bridge enhances multimodal connections for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users while benefiting the community through various public investment programs. Its innovative design includes three lighted, parallel arches that rise above the deck and extend to the water level, allowing the superstructure to expand and contract. With a 540-foot center span and 450-foot flanking spans, the bridge increases navigable waterway width and offers open space above the deck. The design improves mobility, safety, and transit while meeting sustainability and 100-year service life requirements.
OUTSTANDING STRUCTURE | Williams Crossing Pedestrian Bridge
schlaich bergermann partner
As part of Tulsa’s vision for the Zink Dam area, the Williams Crossing pedestrian bridge spans 1,440 feet with eleven 120-foot arch spans and one 120-foot approach span, linking the east and west banks of the Arkansas River. The semi-integral bridge was designed with extremely slender deck-stiffened arches built from weathering steel plate. The deck-stiffened, plate-arch structure is the first of its kind in the US and the bridge is also the first multi-span, plate arch bridge built in the country. Continuous 3-1/4in thick and 48in wide weathering steel plate is bent at the spandrel locations. In between the spandrels the arch plate is locally stiffened with a 2in thick and 24in wide plate to increase the vertical bending stiffness of the arch. An efficient and optimized structural design reduced the bridge to its most minimal footprint and contributed to the structure’s sustainable design. While careful material selection, like the use of locally sourced plate steel, helped to further reduce embodied carbon emissions.
Forensic/Renovation/Retrofit/Rehabilitation Structures up to $20 Million
OUTSTANDING STRUCTURE | UC San Francisco Mount Zion Faculty Housing
Tipping
Constructed in 1968, this seven-story concrete building was gifted to the University of California at San Francisco. By deploying detailed nonlinear analysis, Tipping Structural Engineers were able to devise an exoskeleton approach that strengthens the building’s existing structure. This exterior approach limited the need for interior alterations and the subsequent costly repair of finishes. Interior columns were wrapped with FRP for added strength, while a three-sided wrap was designed, tested, and approved to further avoid unnecessary and expensive interior demolition in certain conditions. The design was estimated at $4.2M, reducing the original estimated retrofit cost by roughly 75%. Through close collaboration with the architect, the exoskeleton design was detailed to enhance the aesthetics of the existing, nondescript 1968 façade. The newly articulated main façade brings the aging facility into the 21st century, while providing enhanced seismic performance to the owner and the building’s new residents.
Forensic/Renovation/Retrofit/Rehabilitation Structures Over $20 Million
651 Gateway
IMEG
IMEG and Maffei Structural Engineering undertook a comprehensive seismic retrofit and renovations for 651 Gateway Boulevard, a 17-story office building in South San Francisco. Originally built to the 1982 Uniform Building Code (UBC), the building had pre-Northridge deficiencies, including weak beam-to-column connections and inadequate column splices. The retrofit included installing fluid viscous dampers (FVDs) to reduce story drift and improve seismic performance. While lower column splices were retrofitted to prevent fractures, the retrofit addressed significant weaknesses in the building’s lateral force resisting system. The project also involved architectural and MEP upgrades, including floor system stiffening for laboratory use, without changing occupancy classification. IMEG, as the structural engineer of record, highlighted the retrofit’s benefits, including enhanced seismic safety, reduced tenant downtime, and extended building lifespan.
Dallas County Records Building Renovation
Datum Engineers
The Dallas County Records Building Complex project ambitiously rejuvenated a nearly useless complex of three early 1900’s historic buildings, converting them into one unified whole, resulting in a connected modern workplace while preserving the historic façades which frame the backdrop of the Kennedy assassination. The design team envisioned an ambitious plan to demolish several floors of the Courts and Annex buildings, protecting their facades in place; rebuild new floors to match the remaining Records floors plus a new floor on top; build a new central circulation spine to connect all buildings seamlessly; and modernize all building systems. Through meticulous, innovative, custom structural solutions, several upper floors of two of the buildings were demolished while bracing and preserving the skin, then new floors were built back with modern floor heights. The result is a beautiful, functional, connected modern workplace for the County to engage and serve the public.
OUTSTANDING STRUCTURE | The Baird Center Expansion
GRAEF
The Baird Center located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, completed the $456 million renovation and expansion involving complex structural challenges with concrete and steel in May 2024. To accommodate 2024 programming needs, the project included infilling a 3-level parking structure and 2-level conference rooms beneath an existing exhibit hall. Engineers overcame challenges by lowering existing pile caps and removing a column while supporting live loads. The renovation expanded exhibit space to 300,000 square feet, with a north-end floor extension cantilevering over a sidewalk. Limited structural depth was addressed with a full-story truss supporting the exhibit level’s concrete structure, visible through exhibit hall windows. The project utilized the PS=0 joint coupler for seamless integration and seismic compliance, and the GRAEFaccelerate® system expedited design and detailing to prepare the center for the 2024 RNC.
Other Structures
OUTSTANDING STRUCTURE | Minnesota Zoo Treetop Trail
Buro Happold | Meyer Borgman Johnson
Opened in July 2023, the Treetop Trail at the Minnesota Zoo is a remarkable adaptive reuse project. It repurposes a 1970s Corten steel monorail track into the world’s longest elevated pedestrian loop. Spanning 1.25 miles, the 8-foot-wide trail navigates over wildlife exhibits, lakes, marshes, and through the forest canopy. The design addressed complex structural challenges by carefully matching the new lightweight steel-framed decking to the existing Corten structure. Through intelligent strengthening, testing, and repairs, the original steel frame and foundations were reused. Prefabricated in 20-foot modules, the steel structure was installed using a custom trolley system, allowing the zoo to remain operational during construction. The trail embodies the zoo’s mission to connect people, animals, and nature while conserving wildlife.
Downtown Cary Park
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
The Downtown Cary Park Pavilions, completed in 2023, enhance the six-acre park in Cary, North Carolina with their striking design and functionality. The three pavilions provide shaded gathering spaces and amenities, each crafted with carefully chosen materials that align with their unique geometric forms. The Great Lawn Pavilion, centrally located, features a multi-purpose stage, concealed green room, and ceiling-suspended AV equipment for events. It combines steel, concrete, glulam, and conventional lumber. The Academy Pavilion, the largest, is the park’s main food and beverage hub, constructed from concrete, steel, conventional lumber, and cold-formed joists. Bark Bar, made of reinforced concrete, serves the adjacent dog play area. The design integrates materiality, structure, and purpose, creating a welcoming environment that has already delighted many visitors.
Real Time Tower
Collins Structural Consulting, PLLC
Collins Structural Consulting, PLLC designed an 81-foot, five-level tower for MrBeast Studio’s YouTube video “In 10 Minutes This Room Will Explode!”, which has over 105 million views. The tower featured 1,400 sq ft of filmable space per floor, clear exterior walls, and various obstacle elements, including trapeze rings and cages, with nearly 20,000 gallons of water on the ground level. With only 45 days and $700,000, traditional construction methods were unfeasible. Instead, recycled shipping containers were used for the main structural columns, secured with off-the-shelf dove-tail connectors and additional steel framing. The C-shaped columns supported the filming stages and allowed for unobstructed filming. Efficient connections and pre-fabrication ensured the project was completed within 23 days, showcasing innovative engineering solutions for filming constraints.