Architectural Services
Structural QA, Steel Shop Drawing Peer Review for the Hillside Tract Project in Georgia
-
Sreela Biswas
- February 21, 2026
- 1:03 pm
Task Assigned
When a structural steel project progresses in the direction of fabrication, there is no room for oversights. That’s precisely when the client decided to partner with Uppteam. Our client demanded an autonomous, in-depth peer review of all structural submittals for the Hillside Tract commercial project in Georgia. The objective for us was straightforward: to verify each submittal against the design drawings before a single piece of steel was ordered. This meant a detailed review of reinforcement and concrete submittals, structural steel framing shop drawings, bar joists, aluminum canopy submittals, and metal decking. All of these had to be reviewed with a sharp focus on load path continuity, constructability, and design adherence.
Project Timeline
Uppteam structured the relevant tasks to move logically from the ground up. We started with
foundation-level submittals, followed by the steel frame, and finally the roof and canopy
elements.
- Phase 1 - The first phase of this project spanned the first two weeks of September. During this period, our team reviewed reinforcement and concrete submittals in great detail, covering bar schedules, lap and development lengths, anchorage requirements, concrete mix design validation, and embedded anchor bolt layouts.
- Phase 2 - The next phase of project work continued over the following two weeks. The focus during this time was on structural steel framing shop drawings. Our team meticulously examined and cross- checked member sizes, spans, connection designs (both bolted and welded), load reactions, and overall load transfer against the structural design intent.
- Phase 3 - The last phase of this commercial project lasted for another two weeks. This final stretch entailed reviewing aluminum canopy submittals, succeeded by structural bar joists and metal decking, comprising deck gauge, joist reactions, fastening patterns, and diaphragm behavior all the way through to the foundation.
Additional Notes
- One of the major challenges we faced was ensuring continuity of the load path across multiple overlapping submittals from distinct trades.
- Our tactic was to conduct methodical cross-verification of all framed members and connections ahead of granting clearances.
- At the end, every single submittal was reviewed and coordinated with the highest degree of precision before fabrication. Discrepancies were spotted and addressed at the review stage, sparing this commercial project from expensive field modifications down the line.
