2026 CFSEI DESIGN EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNER

FIRST PLACE - MUNICIPAL

LOCHSA ENGINEERING, LLC
LAS VEGAS CONVENTION CENTER RENOVATION
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

Las Vegas Convention Center Renovation
3150 Paradise Rd
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Completion Date: December 31, 2025
Construction Cost: $18,970,000

Owner: Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
Architect of Record: Klai Juba Wald
Engineer of Record for Structural Work: Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Cold-Formed Steel Specialty Engineer: Derrick Suarez, P.E., Lochsa Engineering, LLC
Cold-Formed Steel Specialty Contractor: Mirage Builders Inc.
Award Entry Submitted by: Nick Hrico, P.E., Lochsa Engineering, LLC

Photos courtesy of Mirage Builders, Inc. BIMs and drawings courtesy of Lochsa Engineering, LLC.

Project Background

The Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), owned and operated by the LVCVA, began a transformative journey in 2023. The effort reinvented its iconic campus through innovative engineering and forward-thinking design. The project has amplified the center’s capacity, modernized its guest experience and elevated its architectural language. It has turned LVCC into a premier destination for large-scale trade shows and events. 

The LVCC renovation builds on the West Hall’s 2021 debut. It extends its technology, customer experience and contemporary design across the campus. The project weaves a cohesive identity that signals LVCC’s continued leadership in the events industry. 

Key features of the renovation include a Central Hall Grand Lobby. The lobby is flooded with natural light through a glass curtain wall, anchored by a 75-foot digital panorama. A climate-controlled interior concourse now connects the North and South Halls, keeping attendees inside the ecosystem year-round. 

The redesigned South Hall has a new East entrance, a state-of-the-art boardroom and an enhanced administrative complex. The renovation also extended the West Hall’s exterior ribbon roof. The result unifies the campus silhouette. 

The project features several critical infrastructure improvements. It also features a new Main Lobby, North and Central Hall Connectors and upgrades to the Central Concourse. The West Hall expansion adds a contiguous exhibit footprint. 

The underground Loop transport system with Boring Company shuttles attendees among the halls and nearby hotels. A rooftop 98,000-square-foot ballroom and expanded meeting and pre-function spaces together elevate scale, efficiency and experience without compromising elegance. The result is optimized flow and functionality. 

The main lobby’s Sno Cone-like ceiling presented highly irregular geometry. It features surfaces that curve across multiple axes and transition between interior and exterior zones. 

Traditional ceiling layout methods could not reliably define framing locations or reconcile design curvature with existing conditions. 

Solution: The team developed a fully coordinated, point‑cloud–based, cold-formed steel (CFS) framing model. The model integrates the as‑built structure with the architect’s intended geometry. This high‑resolution digital environment allowed the team to: 

• Produce a more efficient and coordinated structural engineering design of all framing elements
• Map exact stud and track locations along the compound curves
• Detect and resolve deviations between the existing structure and design intent
• Coordinate framing with dense, ceiling‑level MEP systems
• Provide the field with precise layout references to maintain tight curvature tolerances 

This approach significantly reduced field uncertainty. It ensured the complex ceiling could be framed accurately with minimal field coordination issues.

Design Challenges and Solutions

Dual-Curved, SNO-Cone Ceiling

Curved Exterior Soffits with Compound Geometry

Curved Exterior Soffits with Compound Geometry

Perimeter soffits required framing that followed long, radius-driven curves. The framing also shifted pitch and angle to match the building’s evolving roof geometry. These conditions produced compound curves that had to align seamlessly with façade transitions and weather barrier interfaces.

Solution 

The Virtual Design Coordination team modeled and our structural engineering team provided precise design/detailing for each soffit segment to represent its true radius, slope, and attachment logic. This granular digital build‑out included: 

• Stud curvature and track flexing based on actual arc geometry
• Accurate placement of primary‑structure connection points
• Integration with varying roof angles and façade transitions
• Detail to support field installation
• Economical CFS engineering designs 

By pre‑resolving the geometry in the model, the Lochsa Engineering team delivered precise layout information. This approach greatly reduced the need for field adjustments and supported continuous accuracy around the building perimeter. 

Existing Structure and MEP Interference Zones 

Multiple areas of the existing building contained dense MEP congestion and legacy structural elements that conflicted with the proposed soffit and bulkhead framing. Standard framing approaches could not accommodate overlapping systems or maintain required clearances. As a result, traditional bulkhead layouts were not constructible. 

Solution 

The Lochsa Engineering team used current CFS structural design programs, BIM and VDC software to develop a specialized bulkhead framing system. The system uses 4'-0" on‑center vertical drops. This created standardized pathways for mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems while maintaining critical ceiling alignments. 

Every element of the bulkhead was modeled and designed in detail to ensure full constructability, including: 

• Accurate and proficient CFS member and connection designs
• Exact stud and track placement for each 4' drop zone
• Intermediate braces and blocking required for structural continuity
• Integration with existing structure, MEP obstructions and clearance requirements
• Verification of member spacing, brace connectivity and attachment logic
• Coordination of framing depth to maintain ceiling alignment across interference areas

The structural engineering design, combined with the digital coordination effort, became a continuous, collaborative process involving Lochsa Engineering, the CFS contractor, general contractor and project architect. 

This daily refinement allowed the team to identify and resolve issues early, before they impacted field installation. It resulted in fewer surprises, minimized costly changes, reduced rework and smoother sequencing through the most technically demanding areas of the remodel. 

In the end, the structural engineering design and VDC effort did more than support construction, it shaped it. The high-fidelity models eliminated guesswork, ensured predictable installation and enabled the framing teams to work confidently within extremely congested conditions. 

The payoff was substantial: faster layout, fewer adjustments and zero-dimensional change orders. The project matched the performance achieved on other complex systems, such as the Ribbon Roof. The project was precise and well-coordinated. This is what good CFS design looks like. 

Conclusion

Lochsa accurately addressed three design challenges: 

• Dual-Curved Sno-Cone Lobby Ceiling
• Curved Exterior Soffits with Compound Geometry
• Existing Structure and MEP Interference Zones 

By leveraging precise structural engineering detailing and BIM/VDC modeling, the Lochsa team translated three complex design challenges into coordinated, constructible cold-formed steel solutions. These included the dual-curved lobby ceiling, compound-geometry exterior soffits and dense existing MEP interference zones.

Through early digital problem solving, fabrication-level detailing and continuous collaboration, the team minimized rework, eliminated dimensional conflicts and delivered predictable framing outcomes across critical areas.