Structural innovator calls on industry leaders to create a funding collective for public-domain research to speed advancement in the built environment

The steel sector is so excited about structural engineer Ron Klemencic’s composite steel superstructure, expected to speed office tower construction, that at least three steel fabricators are studying it, many months before erection is set to begin on Seattle’s 850-ft-tall “proof of concept.”

Structural engineer Ron Klemencic remembers May 2, 2011, as the “most devastating day” of his career.

As ENR’s 53rd Award of Excellence winner Ron Klemencic tells it, he answered the phone on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001, two days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and heard someone saying, “What are you going to do? This is Nadine Post from ENR. You’re the chairman of the tall buildings council. What are you going to do?”

There are those who bellyache that the construction industry is stagnant and lacks innovation and productivity gains.