The AISC Engineering Journal Archive CD-ROM

   STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING is inherently a creative profession. Nevertheless, as often practiced, structural engineers are involved mainly in the design of a few well known structural systems, while research and development are usually directed towards greater economy of material and labor in those systems. 

     However, creativeness in structural engineering should be measured by the evolving of structural systems which offer more flexibility for architectural planning and which could be constructed more economically than structural systems of yesterday. Flexibility could be measured by greater span lengths and aesthetics of the structural systems. Such structural systems could be left exposed and thus save in exterior finishes