It’s rare when an MKA project is mentioned along with Banksy and Depeche Mode. But such was the case in August when CBS News Sunday Morning aired a segment on the American Society of Civil Engineering’s (ASCE’s) Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) Awards Gala—dubbed the “Oscars of the engineering world”—and included an interview with MKA Chairman and CEO Ron Klemencic.
Last year, downtown Seattle’s 58-story, 850-foot-tall Rainier Square received the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award (the Best Picture honor, if you will) for being the world’s first high-rise to incorporate the innovative and non-proprietary SpeedCore structural system into its design. This non-proprietary innovation—16 years in the making and championed by MKA, Purdue University, the Charles Pankow Foundation, and many others—allowed Rainier Square’s construction to occur 43 percent faster than conventional methods and shaved 10 months off the projected 32-month schedule.
When CBS News national correspondent Kris Van Cleave asked what it was like for Rainier Square and SpeedCore to receive the top prize, Ron responded, “Stunned is probably the right word.”
Watch the entire segment online at CBSNews.com here.
Photo credits: (top right) Moris Moreno, (bottom from left to right) Jason Dixson, Magnusson Klemencic Associates