Curved Cold-Formed Steel Framing at All Saints Orthodox Church in Albuquerque Earns CFSEI Award for McClure

Featured image: Model for the main dome at All Saints Orthodox Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Project profile courtesy of CFSEI. All photos courtesy of McClure except where noted.

All Saints Orthodox Church is a two-story primarily wood structure in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As is common with many religious buildings, grand finials and archways help create an elegant and eye-catching interior and exterior. 

The project consists of wood-framed walls, floor joists and roof joists. The arched surfaces on both the interior and exterior are framed with curved cold-formed steel (CFS) studs, as well as three exterior CFS domes and one half dome. Curved structural steel is employed to support the main dome. 

Dana Hennis (left), P.E., S.E. and CFSEI vice chair presents the CFSEI award to Daniel Linneman of McClure.

McClure won the 2023 CFSEI Design Excellence Award for the project, taking second place in the municipal and cultural category in the Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute’s award competition.

The CFSEI Award entry was submitted by Lauren Gutknecht of McClure. Daniel Linneman of McClure accepted the award for the All Saints Orthodox Church project at the 2023 CFSEI Expo held recently in New Orleans.

Framing with Curved CFS Members

McClure’s main scope included the curved surfaces framed with CFS studs and track. To create these shapes, CFS studs were crimped, rolled, skewed and bent to the desired geometry.

However, both the strength and stiffness of these members received a significant reduction. McClure worked extensively with Radius Track to obtain sufficient testing data and design the members accurately with respect to their reduced capacities.

Double skewed box beams in place at All Saints Orthodox Church. Courtesy Radius Track Corporation

Curved surfaces, connections and alignment issues can be complicated. Typical jamb and header framing for openings created challenges.

One particular area of concern was at the intersection of two-barrel vault roofs. If this had been a typical hip and gable roof, a simple girder would have sufficed at the intersection of the two roofs. But framing used curved girder members.

The girder members not only had to be curved to match the shape of the barrel vault roof, but also they had to be twisted along their length to create an attachment surface at the apex. This doubly skewed member is not something that could be accomplished by simply bending studs. Instead, the custom-built shape was fabricated from laser cut plates and tabbed tracks.

Doubly skewed custom box beam detail for track used at All Saints Orthodox Church.

As-built radiused and skewed box beam. Courtesy Radius Track Corporation

Modeling Helped Resolve Thrust Forces

Detailed finite element modeling of this unique shape was crucial in determining the torsional effects and stress concentrations. Shear flow analysis had to be performed to obtain an adequate fastener pattern while also understanding the capacity limitations.

Working closely with the team at Radius Track, as well as paying attention to detail and thorough modeling, helped create unique solutions.

McClure implemented several more typical radiused designs on the All Saints project. This included CFS domes framed with crimped studs, a curved steel plate compression ring, and a curved steel plate or HSS tension ring. 

McClure was also responsible for all the curved interior ceiling members and exterior roof members. This included unique situations where an interior curved stud needed to be hung from an exterior curved stud using wire hangers.

The barrel vault, framed with crimped cold-formed steel (CFS) studs, was hung from the church’s exterior curved roof.

A large half dome framed with cold-formed steel (CFS) presented tension and compression challenges.

A large half dome on the project presented another situation, where large thrust forces caused by the discontinuous tension and compression ring had to be resolved back into the structure.

All Saints Orthodox Church is a project that highlights McClure’s expertise as cold-formed steel engineers, especially with respect to unique and complicated radiused and curved framing and connections.

Read more about McClure’s CFS details for All Saints Orthodox Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, here.

Additional Resources

• Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute to Hold the 2024 CFSEI Expo in Tucson, Arizona (May 20-22, 2024)
• McClure Wins CFSEI Award for Church’s Multiple Cold-Formed Steel Domes
• New Research Helps Engineers, Architects Tally Cold-Formed Steel Load Buckling Stress