Steel, Together, Better: Early Collaboration for Project Success

​Steel, together, better. A live conversation on early collaboration for project success.

​On most projects, we do not all show up at the same time. The architect starts. The structural engineer joins. And the fabricator, the person who actually turns the drawings into steel, usually arrives last, after the big decisions are already made. Everyone who has worked this way has also felt what it costs: the value engineering that lands too late, the redesign, the connection that would have been simpler and less expensive if someone had asked one question in month two instead of month ten.

​This live, hour-long conversation asks a simple question with a hard answer: what actually changes when the engineer and the fabricator come in early, at the same table as the architect? Host Evelyn Lee, FAIA, sits down with a structural engineer and architect from SOM and a steel fabricator from Puma Steel to get concrete about it, with real projects, real numbers, and a focus on the relationship that usually has no direct line at all, the one between the architect and the fabricator.

​You will leave with a clear sense of where late involvement costs the most, what early structural and fabrication input does to design, budget, and schedule, the single misconception architects hold about how steel gets priced, and one thing you can do on your next project to bring these voices in earlier.

​Bring your questions. We take them throughout, not just at the end.

​Presented by Practice of Architecture and the AISC Architecture Center.

Georgi Petrov, Senior Associate Principal, SOM. A practicing architect, structural engineer, and space architect in the structures group at SOM's New York office, where he works on high-rises and long-span structures around the world. He teaches Design of Tall Buildings at NYU and MIT and chairs the AIAA's Space Architecture Technical Committee.

​Wade Lewis, Vice President, Puma Steel. An AISC Board Member and a member of the committee that writes the AISC Code of Standard Practice. Wade started in the steel industry as a machine operator in 1997 and has spent the last twenty years in project management and sales, working on projects across the western United States.

​Evelyn Lee, FAIA, NOMA, host. Architect, firm owner, and founder of Practice of Architecture. She served as 2025 President of the American Institute of Architects and hosts Practice Disrupted, a weekly podcast with more than 80,000 listeners.

This session has been submitted for 1 AIA LU continuing education credit. Approval will be confirmed before the event.