At the Pierpont Morgan Library, the old and the new are seamlessly connected with the use of light, but strong, structural steel and low-e glass. Architect Renzo Piano’s design integrates landmarked buildings – including the original collection’s 1906 McKim, Mead, and White neo-Renaissance quarters – with a soaring modern atrium that houses a new Madison Avenue entrance. Owner: Pierpont Morgan Library New York, NY Architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop Paris, FR Executive Architect: Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners, LLP New York, NY Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates, PC New York, NY General Contractor: F.J. Sciame Construction Co., Inc. New York, NY Structural Steel Erector: DCM Erectors, Inc. New York, NY Curtain Wall Consultant: Front Inc. New York, NY Curtain Wall Fabricator: Josef Gartner Germany Gundelfingen, DE Curtain Wall Erectors: Tower Installation LLC Windsor, CT Metal Deck Erector: Solera/DCM Erectors, Inc. New York, NY

Architect Sir Norman Foster added 40 new stories to this historic midtown low-rise without compromising its legendary art-deco facade. Reliable and precise the innovative diagrid framing system uses a backbone of steel that sets higher standards for structural strength in post-9/11 New York.

The entry redesign of this classic beaux arts building demonstrates the precedence of steel design. Architects highlighted Brooklyn Museum’s existing steel and glass skylights while using those same materials to craft a cutting-edge stepped skylight that ascends two stories. Owner: Brooklyn Museum of Art Brooklyn, NY Architect: Polshek Partnership Architects New York, NY Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates, PC New York, NY Skylight Consultant: Dewhurst, Macfarlane & Partners New York, NY General Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease New York, NY Structural Steel Fabricator and Erector: Ment Bros. I.W. Co., Inc. New York, NY Ornamental and Miscellaneous Metal Fabricator and Erector: Ment Bros. I.W. Co., Inc. New York, NY Skylight Glass Fabricator and Erector: W&W Glass Systems, Inc. Nanuet, NY

The re-opening of Top of the Rock, the three-tiered observation deck atop seventy-story 30 Rockefeller Plaza, demanded the strength and flexibility of structural steel. Engineers cut through the original steel beams to insert a curving ornamental stair and constructed a new entry sequence from West 50th Street.

Perkins Eastman architects knew that steel framing is as flexible and accommodating as the new 32-story, 473-foot-tall tower, called 12 MetroTech Center, needed to be. Containing offices, courtrooms, detention facilities, and more, this high-rise includes an unusually large number of long span spaces and specialized circulation routes. Owner: Forest City Ratner Companies New York, NY Architect: Perkins Eastman Architects New York, NY Structural Engineer: Gilsanz Murray Steficek, LLP New York, NY General Contractor: Turner Construction New York, NY Structural Steel Erector: DCM Erectors Inc. New York, NY Miscellaneous Metal Fabricator and Erector: Empire City Iron Works Long Island City, NY Ornamental Metal Fabricator and Erector: A-Val Architectural Metal Corp. College Point, NY Curtain Wall Fabricator and Erector: Enclos Corp. Eagan, MN Metal Deck Erector: Solera/DCM Erectors, Inc. New York, NY

Steel frames were as uplifting to the whimsical roofline of this 260,000-square-foot children’s hospital, as its dollhouse-like corner towers and pitched roofs and gables are to young patients. The roof frame members were shop welded and bolted on site.

This Randall’s Island athletic facility gave the historic, yet dilapidated, Downing Stadium a new name, a new look, and the first IAAF Class 1 running track in the United States. Geiger Engineers chose steel to keep the project light, and built the 5,000-seat grandstand in the first phase of construction. Owner: NYC Economic Development Corp. New York, NY Architect: Hillier Architecture Princeton, NJ Structural Engineers: Geiger Engineers Suffern, NY General Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease New York, NY Structural Steel Fabricators: Helmark Steel Industries, Inc. Wilmington, DE; Kline Iron & Steel, Inc. Columbia, SC Miscellaneous Steel Fabricators and Erectors: Achilles Construction Co, Inc. Brooklyn, NY; Summit Group East Rutherford, NJ Structural Steel Erectors: Falcon Steel Co, Inc. Wilmington, DE; AJ McNulty & Co, Inc. Maspeth, NY

The first building to rise from the site of the 9/11 attacks, 7 World Trade Center is symbolically and architecturally meaningful. Architect James Carpenter showed that steel guarantees safety – the Cable Net Wall at the entrance and lobby is blast resistant – without compromising aesthetics. Owner: Silverstein Properties New York, NY Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill New York, NY Engineers: WSP Cantor Seinuk New York, NY; James Carpenter Associates New York, NY Consultants: Israel Berger and Associates New York, NY General Contractor: Tishman Construction Corporation New York, NY Miscellaneous Steel Fabricator and Erector: Empire City Iron Works Long Island, NY; Skyline Steel Corp. Brooklyn, NY Curtain Wall Fabricator and Erector: Permasteelisa Windsor, CT Cable Net Wall Fabricator: Josef Gartner Germany Gundelfingen, DE Cable Net Wall Erector: Ment Bros. Iron Works New York, NY Architectural and Ornamental Fabricator: Allied Bronze LLC Long Island City, NY Architectural and Ornamental Erector: Ornamental Installation Specialists Warwick, NY Metal Deck Erector: A.C. Associates Lyndhurst, NJ

Whether a tourist headed to Staten Island or one of the 60 to 70 thousand daily commuters, all can appreciate the steel makeover of St. George Ferry Terminal. Once dreary and dark, it now features a waiting room bathed in natural light and a boldly avant-garde 350-foot arch of painted steel. Owner: NYC Economic Development Corp. New York, NY Architect: Helmuth, Obata + Kassabaum New York, NY Engineer: Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers New York, NY General Contractor: Skanska USA Building, Inc. New York, NY Structural Steel Fabricator: Owen Steel Company SC Structural Steel Erector: AJ McNulty & Co, Inc. Maspeth, NY Ornamental Steel Fabricator and Erector: Post Road Iron Works Greenwich, CT Miscellaneous Steel Fabricator and Erector: Transcontinental Steel Newark, NJ Metal Deck Erector: A.C. Associates Lyndhurst, NJ

Time Warmer Center’s strength and beauty come in big numbers – 2.7 million square feet of space, nearly 1,000,000 square feet of ornamental metal, and 13,000 panes of glass. Its exterior façade also features 12 types of curtain wall, with the 150-foot-high entrance-framing the largest cable net wall in the United States. Owner: The Related Companies, Inc. New York, NY Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill New York, NY Engineer: WSP Cantor Seinuk New York, NY General Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease, LMB New York, NY Miscellaneous Steel Fabricators and Erectors: Skyline Steel Corp. Brooklyn, NY; Coordinated Metals, Inc. Carlstadt, NJ; Empire City Iron Works Long Island City, NY Miscellaneous Steel Fabricators and Erectors: Melto Metals Freeport, Long Island; Gold Coin Ironworks Elmsford, NY Curtain Wall Erector: Diamond Installation New Rochelle, NY; W&W Glass Nanuet, NY Metal Deck Erector: Solera/DCM Erectors, Inc. New York, NY