Yet the completed steel-framed house looks just like its wood-framed neighbors.

Therefore, a steel-framed house may have to be approved by a qualified engineer before it is ready for occupancy.

In 1950, while enrolled at USC, Koenig designed and built his first steel-framed house for himself and his family.

Steel Homes is a White Plains construction company, which Mr. Fried started last year to build single-family, steel-framed houses.

His father, a retired architect, and his mother also wanted a kamoi, a structural beam used in traditional wood homes but unnecessary in a new steel-framed house like the one their son had designed.