Architectural Detail: Raymond Group Wins SFIA Award for 8th & Figueroa Tower in Los Angeles

Featured image: The staircase at 8th & Figueroa in Los Angeles features cold-formed steel (CFS) framing. Images courtesy of The Raymond Group.

Figueroa Eight, or Fig8, is a 42-story, 530 foot (160 m)-tall, residential skyscraper at 8th & Figueroa in downtown Los Angeles, California. Figueroa Eight is one of the tallest buildings in Los Angeles, and it features 1,630,000 lbs., or 815 tons, of cold-formed steel (CFS).

The Raymond Group, a member of the Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA), fulfilled several engineered designs for CFS framing systems, including the CFS framing for an out-of-this-world, grand ornamental, Corian waterfall staircase spanning two levels in the main residential lobby.

The Raymond Group, a member of the Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA), built the cold-formed steel (CFS) framing systems at Figueroa Eight, one of the tallest buildings in Los Angeles.

The Raymond Group is the SFIA 2024 Industry Project Awards winner for 8th & Figueroa in the Architectural Detail category. The SFIA Awards entry was submitted by Kim Whitney of The Raymond Group.

The Raymond Group’s win was announced at the 2024 SFIA Awards ceremony held live recently and posted online. The SFIA 2024 Industry Project Awards, an annual awards competition, focuses on CFS manufacturing and construction. This year, designers, manufacturers, distributors and contractors entered a variety of projects in the competition.

Design Quality

Did this project make efficient use of metal framing products?

For this 42-story luxury apartment building, The Raymond Group took on several engineered designs for both the CFS framing and some miscellaneous structural steel (iron) systems, helping to help problem-solve as the project progressed. 

One solution involved an 11th-hour CFS framing design for a fire-rated generator enclosure extension after an LA Fire Department review. The Raymond Group’s input significantly aided the temporary certificates of occupancy process. 

The Raymond Group also contributed to the planning and problem solving for a perimeter metal panel roof cornice, which extends around the entirety of Level 43 of the building. The company’s engineer designed extra support for the cornice and chose to use prefabricated HSS and C-channel support structures. The latter were in-fill framed offsite, clad with metal panels, delivered and crane-installed in place. This approach eliminated safety hazards, such as a challenging scaffold erection, fall hazards and eventual dismantling of the scaffolding.

The Raymond Group participated in the design and construction of a waterfall staircase framed with cold-formed steel (CFS) in the lobby of 8th & Figueroa.

The stair had a total of 32 treads, each having a Corian “fin” at each end.

The Raymond Group “was the general contractor’s go-to trade partner, performing 17 different scopes,” Whitney wrote in the 2024 SFIA Awards entry submission. The company’s scope included less common items, such as intumescent fireproofing, furnishing and installing fire protection specialties, lockers and mailboxes, and sound isolated and acoustical ceilings. 

“They were performed with safety, problem solving and quality in mind,” the entry submission said.

The 2024 SFIA Awards judges said: “The staircase is impressive and unique” and added that “no one would have thought to use CFS for this before.”

Installation Complexity

What difficulties existed on the project?

The Raymond Group contributed to the planning and problem solving for a perimeter metal panel roof cornice, which extended around the entirety of Level 43. 

“Our engineer took on designing extra support for the cornice while eventually deciding on prefabricated HSS and C-channel support structures that were in-fill framed offsite, clad with metal panels and then delivered and crane-installed in place,” Whitney wrote in the 2024 SFIA Awards entry submission.

As previously noted, the approach eliminated several safety hazards.

Figueroa Eight, one of the tallest buildings in Los Angeles, features 1,630,000 lbs. of cold-formed steel (CFS).

The Raymond Group took on several engineered designs for the cold-formed steel (CFS) framing on the project.

Manufacturing Complexity

Were special materials involved?

As noted above, The Raymond Group implemented the engineered designs for several CFS framing systems and miscellaneous steel/iron systems.

The Raymond Group also provided an 11th-hour CFS framing solution for a fire-rated generator enclosure extension, which was required after an LA Fire Department review. The solution aided the project’s temporary certificates of occupancy process.

Overall Job Quality

How did the completed system turn out?

The Raymond Group worked nearly 160,000 hours efficiently and safely, exemplifying a strong safety culture and providing hazard resolution along the way. It represented nearly 20,000 safely worked man days. In other words, workers went to the 8th & Figueroa job site and went home safely effectively 20,000 times, based the man-days clocked on the job. 

Whitney’s submission noted that The Raymond Group “was at the forefront of problem solving and issue resolution from start to finish.” 

“We regularly met with General Contractor and ownership to work through constraints and priorities,” she wrote.

The Raymond Group worked nearly 160,000 hours efficiently and safely, exemplifying a strong safety culture.

Workers went to the 8th & Figueroa job site and went home safely effectively 20,000 times, based on the man-days clocked on the job.

The Raymond Group also participated in the design and construction of an “out-of-this-world Corian waterfall grand ornamental stair spanning from Levels 1 to 2 in the main residential lobby,” the entry submission said. 

The stair had a total of 32 treads with each having a Corian “fin” at each end. As the stair ascends step by step, the Corian lengthens or lessens with it, dying into each tread’s front with a curved element while continuing curved off the other end and extending through the ceiling above. 

Months of coordination meetings, onsite reviews and continuous collaboration led to a beautiful finished product.

The Raymond Group is the 2024 SFIA Awards winner in the Architectural Detail category of CFS for 8th & Figueroa. The project also involved SFIA member Foundation Building Materials.

Additional Resources

• SFIA Unveils 9 Winners of the 2024 Industry Project Awards
• SFIA Reveals 7 Winners of the 2023 Industry Project Awards in Online Ceremony
• Designers: Update to SFIA’s 2024 Tech Guide for the Latest CFS Load and Span Tables