By Phillip G. Bernstein, FAIA

China, it seems, is one giant construction project. And like all giants, it has a large appetite -- in this case, for construction materials. Half a world away, Chinas consumption of raw materials has created indigestion for American architects and structural engineers, forcing them to struggle with the spiraling cost and availability of structural steel and concrete for their projects. With each change in the price of materials -- sometimes weekly -- project costs escalate, necessitating a constant process of redesign as teams strive to hit construction budget targets. And with each such cycle, you can hear the cry of the structural engineers, asked once again to reduce the cost of the work: Not again!Of course, Chinas effect on steel prices is hardly the only challenge structural engineers face on projects large and small. And in most of those projects, the cost and associated tedium of these changes are skewed to the later stages of a project, as the architects and developers become better acquainted with the engineering issues.