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The one highest award given each year, the Eminent Conceptor Award, recognizes an engineering achievement which demonstrates a high degree of merit and ingenuity, contributes to the advancement of the private practice of engineering, and enhances the economic and social welfare of the general public.
STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS
OWP/P
Gerald Ratner Athletics Center
Owner: The University of Chicago
Subconsultants: Cesar Pelli & Associates, New Haven, CT
 The University of Chicago Ratner Athletics Center is a $51 million state-of-the-art athletics facility that celebrates 150,000 square feet of health, fitness, and sporting activity. The project includes a competition gymnasium, an Olympic-sized natatorium, and a myriad of other spaces that accommodate almost any conceivable athletic activity.
Designed by internationally renowned architects Cesar Pelli & Associates, and engineered by OWP/P in Chicago, the project features a first-of-its-kind asymmetrically supported cable-stayed system that gracefully suspends the S-shaped roofs that float over the large volume gymnasium and natatorium spaces. This innovative structure utilizes 10-story tall composite masts and a series of splayed high-strength cables that support 33" deep curved steel roof members. The thin roof framing is cold bent to shape, and delicately suspended over the 160-foot spans. The tapered masts are stabilized by back-stay cables anchored in place by massive concrete counterweights that counteract the weight of the roof.
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