Kottler Metal Products Project Recognized as IDEAS2 Award Winner by the American Institute of Steel Construction
Kottler Metals Products is honored to receive a national award of excellence for its contribution of structural bends to the Robert B. Aikens Commons at the University of Michigan Law School, winner of the 2012 IDEAS2 Awards Program. The IDEAS2 Award winner is determined by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) for a project that is recognized as using structural steel in an innovative manner. The AISC is a not-for-profit technical institute and trade association for the use of structural steel in the construction industry. The AISC supplies specifications, codes, technical assistance, quality certification, and standardization. Kottler Metal Products is an active member of the AISC’s Bender-Roller Committee.
IDEAS² Awards
Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel
Sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction, this program recognizes those projects where structural steel has been utilized in an innovative manner. The innovative use of structural steel may be in:
- the accomplishment of the building's program
- the expression of architectural intent
- the application of innovative design approaches to the structural system
- the utilization of productivity enhancing construction methods
Project
Basis
The
design
and
construction
industry
is
growing
in
recognition
of
the
value
of
coordination,
collaboration
and
teamwork
in
the
successful
accomplishment
of
a
project's
program.
In
active
support
of
this
trend,
AISC
has
brought
together
previously
separate
architectural
and
structural
engineering
award
programs
that
focused
on
a
single
aspect
of
the
building
project
into
a
single
program
designed
to
recognize
excellence
and
innovation
in
the
use
of
structural
steel
on
a
comprehensive,
project
basis.
Awards
will
be
made
to
the
project
recognizing
and
awarding
all
members
of
the
project's
team
involved
with
the
structural
framing
system:
architectural
firm,
structural
engineering
firm
of
record,
general
contractor,
detailer,
fabricator,
erector
as
well
as
the
project
owner.
Specialty
consultants
and
contractors
will
be
recognized
at
the
discretion
of
the
architect
and
structural
engineer
of
record.
Any
member
of
the
project
team
may
submit
a
project
for
consideration.
Joint
submittals
from
project
teams
are
encouraged.
Grand Opening of Robert B. Aikens Commons and Kirkland & Ellis Café Draws Hundreds
By John Masson, Michigan Daily
The opening of the magnificent glass-roofed Robert B. Aikens Commons left little doubt about where the social heart of the LawSchool now lies.
Several hundred students, faculty, and staff formed up outside four new sets of double doors leading into the space from Hutchins Hall. When the doors finally swung open (after the last construction worker had finished polishing the last piece of trim), a flood of humanity broke over the Commons' comfortable furnishings like a wave and settled in as if the place had always been there.
Built
on
the
site
of
a
disused
courtyard
between
Hutchins
Hall,
the
stacks,
and
the
Reading
Room,
the
gathering
space
now
links
all
three.
Featuring
a
curved
glass
roof
supported
by
tree-like
steel
beams,
the
Commons—with
its
student
gathering
spots,
spaces
for
student
organizations,
meeting
rooms,
and
the
beautiful
new
Kirkland
&
Ellis
Café—also
will
serve
as
the
main
entry
point
for
Hutchins
Hall.
This
week's
opening
is
the
first
step
to
solving
a
serious
space
crunch
at
the
LawSchool.
When
the
new
South
Hall
academic
building
opens
later
this
fall,
the
school
will
also
have
added
classroom
and
office
space
for
a
student
body
that's
more
than
doubled
and
a
faculty
that's
more
than
quadrupled
since
the
last
new
instructional
spaces
opened
in
Hutchins
Hall
in
1933.
But there were pitfalls to dodge in the design and building process.
The first was to avoid detracting from the beauty already present. The second was to resist the temptation to try to slavishly duplicate the existing buildings. Instead, in the words of the project's architects, the goal became designing structures that clearly belonged in the same family as the existing buildings. That way the work would celebrate the LawSchool's storied past while keeping an eye firmly fixed on the future.
Visitors to Aikens Commons will find that architects somehow managed to bring the warm granite of the outside walls indoors. Both levels of the space are bathed in natural light, with the top level divided between a café space and an open gathering spot. The steel towers holding up the roof add to the impression of being outdoors—they're shaped like the soaring elms of the Law Quad.
Downstairs, a special events and media room with retractable walls is at the center of the space. The perimeter features ample seating and places for members of the law school community to chat and mingle. Building materials are a mix of the old and the new, with granite, limestone, and glass mingling with softer surfaces like leather and fabric paneling.
"I defy anyone to say which part of this building was built in 2010, and which was built in 1931," Dean Evan Caminker joked during a brief welcoming talk.
Taken in combination with South Hall, the structures promise to transform the way one of America's great schools trains future generations of the leaders and best in one discipline that governs every important aspect of our lives: the law.
