Radius Track Corp. received the Excellence in Construction Award from CISCA. The award, presented at CISCA’s annual convention in April, recognized the company for excellence in designing and fabricating curved cold-formed steel framing for the new Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio. The project received top honors, the Gold award, in the South Region’s Interior Finishes category for difficult and complex projects.

CISCA cites Radius Track’s contribution to a unique feature wall in the Tobin Center’s lobby. The wall has a compound-curvature. Not only does it wrap nearly 100 feet around the back of the auditorium, it undulates in and out as it rises nearly 70 feet above the floor. It is clad with sculptural panels that vary in configuration to accommodate the wall’s complex geometry. The panels, made from glass-fiber reinforced gypsum (GFRG), are supported by Curved-Right, Radius Track’s custom-fabricated cold-formed steel (CFS) framing system.

Chuck Mears, FAIA, chief design officer at Radius Track, compares his company’s work to the backstage crew at the theater. “The GFRC panels are out in front getting the applause, so we are grateful to CISCA for recognizing the importance of our ‘supporting’ role.”

Radius Track is the leading provider of complex and curved framing solutions made with cold-formed steel. The firm’s Design Director, Ryan Rademacher, AIA, explained, “CFS is lightweight, strong, and economical to build with. Yet standard products are primarily suitable for simple, flat surfaces. Radius Track has developed techniques to precisely curve CFS members. We use the most up-to-date building modeling and digital fabrication techniques to create the complex and curved structures needed in contemporary architecture.”

Radius Track collaborated with the panel fabricator, Stromberg Architectural Products, to develop 3-D computer models and fabricate components within very close tolerance. The attention to details assured panels and framing fit without requiring adjustments in the field.

The building was designed by LMN Architects in association with Marmon Mok Architecture. Matt Allert, AIA with LMN, said Radius Track, “delivered an extremely complicated structure that curves in both directions and was complicated to figure out. Together with Baker Triangle, the project’s framing contractor, they took a proactive approach, utilized their expertise in curved and complex framing, worked in 3D models initially and then a physical mock-up to study the wall’s assembly and panel joinery, and improved the project through their collective knowledge of CFS framing and installation.”

Mears and Rademacher accepted the award for Radius Track along with Mike Sireno from Baker Triangle. They also credit the project’s success to Building Specialties (L&W Supply), a San Antonio-based distributor. All three companies are CISCA members.