Over the past forty years, there have occurred multiple advancements within the steel building industry. Vanished from sight are the unsightly steel buildings of the past. Modern technology married to steel now produces such wonderful buildings such as: The Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Atomium in Belgium, and the Peter B. Lewis Building in Cleveland. The unsightly metal sheds have met their match. These matches are appearing on ranchlands, farms, commercial land and with private homeowners.

The acceptance of steel structures took off toward the end of the 19th century. The first initial steel structure was a small building to stow a car, shortly thereafter, steel was being used for broader storage capabilities. Soon small businesses caught on and the steel building industry began to expand.

In the 1940’s the first line of pre-fabricated structures using a rigid frame layout appeared. Rigid structural frames as the vital element for the steel building’s framework were established becoming a strong and durable building structure. Still in use today, this frame system is an accepted style of construction for many projects. Larger and more functional steel structure systems at a lower cost were attained by both businesses and industries alike, the allure being the strength of the building and the fast set-up time. Formerly assembled airplane hangars that utilized other building materials were substituted by steel airplane hangars after the 1940’s.

Progress then commenced with making the engineering aspects of steel structures more flexible. The demand for prefabricated, pre-engineered structures grew so that in 1956, The Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA) was formed. This alliance strictly regulated manufacturing of steel structures, beginning a push towards changing the prices of years past and working to increase the consumer base for these structures. The prefabricated, pre-engineered industry grew markedly with 1 million dollars in new projects in the late 1950’s to higher than two-point-five-billion dollars in new structure by the end of the twentieth century. The rise in steel prices in the 20th Century brought to the forefront the use of premium-grade steel. In spite of recent price increases, a large number of building contractors, companies, and other development associations are still selecting high quality steel as their construction material. Even with the price going up, the cost of building with steel is still substantially lower than building with traditional measures.