Not too many years ago metal buildings were largely utilitarian structures used for farming and ranching. In Colorado, you might see examples off of I-70 near Burlington or Dacono if you were on Interstate 25. They were reliable structures, durable buildings, but not very attractive.
Times have changed and today’s pre-engineered steel buildings offer so much more both in appearance and function. General Steel Corporation (a Colorado-based national steel building supplier) continues to offer agricultural buildings, but the company has a variety of structural offerings nationally, including steel churches, schools, sports arenas and many other building types. These buildings are faced with a variety of materials including glass, brick and stone. In fact, you probably look at pre-engineered steel buildings everyday without realizing they are pre-engineered steel.
Across the nation and certainly in Colorado, “green” applications (or more precisely “sustainable building” practices) are becoming more important to environmentally-conscious consumers, owners, and operators considering a building project. A sustainable building is a structure that is designed, built, renovated, operated, or reused in an ecological and resource-efficient manner. The design of a General Steel building can qualify as sustainable as the first ingredient in the design is the material used; steel. Steel is North America’s #1 recycled material. Each year more steel is recycled than aluminum, paper, glass, and plastic combined. General Steel uses recycled steel in all buildings supplied to the state of Colorado.
A General Steel building is a resource-efficient structure as it uses no wood and there will be minimal job site waste due to the use of pre-engineered building shell components. All General Steel buildings for Colorado projects are pre-cut, pre-drilled, and pre-welded at the factory before delivery to your work site. The building goes up rapidly and efficiently. A steel building project typically has 2% waste vs. 20% for wood on like-sized structures. So if you are planning for a new retail center in Denver or a manufacturing facility in Grand Junction look to the resource-efficiency of a building supplied by “The General” produced with recycled steel.
Proper planning can also help minimize the environmental impact of your project at your Colorado worksite and aid in maintaining sustainability guidelines. Our design service professionals offer optional packages that include preliminary plans and/or a complete project analysis. Your project’s impact on the surrounding environment can be included in a site design and planning option. Additionally, full conceptual renderings may be chosen to show interior, exterior, and landscaping particulars for approvals by the city or a planning board.
Renovation (a key sustainability feature) of a General Steel building is not necessary as our buildings are virtually maintenance-free. However, if expansion is required, in the future, the necessary pre-engineered recycled steel can be ordered to lengthen the building, again with minimal waste considerations.
Finally, sustainability speaks to reuse. All General Steel buildings come with a 50 year structural warranty so the life-cycle of the structural components can be relied on for many decades. However, once the steel structure has outlived its usefulness it can be disassembled and recycled.
When looking to build your project in Colorado, whether a new strip mall in Ft. Collins or gymnasium in Colorado Springs, you can rely on the professionals at General Steel Corporation.