ALLPLAN People & Team Awards Highlight Innovation, Ingenuity, and Influence

Progress is not always glamorous. You aren’t going to see many pictures of efficiency on the cover of a magazine. In the world of construction, it’s the structures themselves that most often steal the spotlight—the gleaming glass towers, the architectural designs, the shiny industrial facilities. 

But the real work often goes on behind the scenes, long before construction crews get to the site. It’s the people and teams with their boots on the ground who aren’t afraid to try new things, explore new tools, and learn and share across the community who really keep the industry moving forward. 

That’s why we created three new awards this year to recognize not only the final projects, but the innovators, problem-solvers, and influencers who are making a real difference on project outcomes, within the ALLPLAN community and across the industry. 

Let’s take a closer look at the inaugural winners of the ALLPLAN Awards for people and teams. 

 

Ingenuity Award

Winner: Paul Drake, KL&A Engineers & Builders

Detailers, fabricators, and engineers are facing increasingly complex project demands. The difference between success and failure often comes down to creatively solving a never-before-seen design, detailing, or construction challenge. The ALLPLAN Ingenuity Award recognizes the people and teams who take on the most daunting obstacles, turning would-be headaches into triumphs. 

This year’s winner took on a truly unique steel detailing challenge that was neither a conventional new build, renovation, nor retrofit, but rather the careful disassembly and preservation of a historically significant ski lift on the slopes of Aspen, Colorado. 

With little usable documentation from the original 1940s construction, Paul Drake, a steel detailer at KL&A Engineers & Builders, relied on point cloud survey data and creative modeling techniques in SDS2 to capture the custom-built, weather-warped lift structures. His work blended advanced digital modeling with historical preservation, enabling crews to safely and efficiently dismantle the lift while protecting its fragile components and leaving behind a detailed digital record to support future restoration and education.

The Lift 1A Deconstruction project also took second place in the “Complex Miscellaneous” category of the ALLPLAN Awards for steel projects. 

 

Innovation Award

Winner: Vinayadas Vijayan, Cronus Steel Detailing

Innovation in the construction industry isn’t just about having the latest technology or software tools. The Innovation Award honors the teams who put their tools to work for maximum impact, creating new workflows, applications, or processes that make a real difference in project and business outcomes and push the industry forward. 

Coordination between the office and the shop floor is one of the most persistent challenges in steel construction projects. This year’s winner implemented a deceptively simple solution to reduce errors and miscommunication between detailers and fabricators on the floor. Research and development specialist Vinayadas Vijayan and his team at Cronus Steel developed a custom application that embeds QR codes on shop drawings produced by SDS2, which links to an interactive, 3D model of the drawing.

This tool is especially useful for inexperienced fitters, welders, and fabricators, helping them understand member geometry much faster than drawings can allow. The integration is also fully automated and incorporated with the SDS2 detailing process, so it won’t add any extra time to the detailers’ workload. 

"Receiving this award is a testament to our team’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in steel detailing,” Vijayan said. “We prioritize innovation at Cronus Steel because we see technology as a way to solve age-old communication challenges. By integrating 3D models directly into the hands of those on the floor, we are making the construction process safer, faster, and more intuitive."

 

Influencer Award

Winner: Adam Williams, Affton Fabricating & Welding Co., Inc.

In the cutthroat world of construction, the user community around ALLPLAN and SDS2 has always stood out as a place of open dialogue, personal connection, and collaboration. The ALLPLAN Influencer Award is designed to recognize a standout contributor to the community—someone who shares knowledge, inspires and empowers others, and represents the users of ALLPLAN products across the industry both virtually and in person. 

This year’s winner is Adam Williams, lead steel detailer at Affton Fabricating & Welding Company, 25-year veteran of the steel industry and SDS2. Adam is active in communities across the industry and has presented through the NISD organization and at events like NASCC. At ALLPLAN’s 2025 Build Forward conference, he led a breakout session highlighting productivity tips for SDS2 that was noted by many attendees as one of the event’s most valuable sessions. 

Williams has also established a strong online presence with posts filled with encouragement, personal anecdotes, and questions meant to foster dialogue and knowledge sharing among detailers and other professionals. 

“I’m truly humbled and honored to have received the 2025 Influencer Award at the Build Forward conference,” Williams shared on a LinkedIn post. “This award isn’t just mine. It reflects the encouragement, mentorship, and collaboration I’ve received from so many amazing people along the way. I’m excited to keep learning, sharing, and contributing wherever I can.”