Rooftop Tiara Wins IDEAS2 Award

Chicago – The steel tiara that crowns Cincinnati’s tallest building, the Great American Tower at Queen City Square, has earned national recognition in the 2012 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel awards program (IDEAS2). Members of the project team were presented with awards from the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) during a ceremony at the building in July.
Conducted annually by AISC, the IDEAS2 awards recognize outstanding achievement in engineering and architecture on structural steel projects across the country. The IDEAS2 award is the highest, most prestigious honor bestowed on building projects by the structural steel industry in the U.S.
The Great American Tower rooftop tiara is a Merit award winner in the category of projects Less than $15 Million, making it one of only four projects around the country to receive the Merit honor. Each year, the IDEAS2 awards honor National and Merit award winners in three categories, based on constructed value. Each project is judged on its use of structural steel from both an architectural and structural engineering perspective.
The steel rooftop tiara atop the 41-story Great American Tower is an iconic presence on the city’s skyline. The 400-ton, 130-ft-tall tiara was conceived by Gyo Obata, a founder and design principal of HOK. Obata was inspired by a photograph of a tiara worn by Diana, Princess of Wales, and by Cincinnati’s nickname, the Queen City.
“The project really used steel to create an architectural focus for the building,” commented Dan Labriola, LEED AP BD+C, a judge in the competition. “The night views of the project really differentiate this building from the rest of the skyline.”
The IDEAS2 award dates back more than 70 years to the earliest years of AISC’s existence. Roger E. Ferch, P.E., president of AISC, said, “The entire Great American Tower rooftop tiara project team has shown how structural steel can be used to create structures that combine beauty and practicality. The result is a structure that serves its patrons extremely well, while providing an example of what can be achieved when designing and constructing projects with steel.”