Mixed masonry and steel supports

When I worked in the Midwest US I did a ton of steel joist on masonry wall systems.

Now that I'm in western Canada, I get a lot of requests for the masonry as infill systems.

I much prefer to use my block walls as load bearing. There's just something fundamentally inelegant about having redundant vertical structure side by side. And I hate using infill masonry walls as shear walls. The detailing's always sketchy and you engage less dead load to resist overturning. Tough to argue with the cost consultants though.

A colleague of mine is working on a water treatment plant where they want concrete vertical frames, steel infill roof, and masonry infill walls for similar reasons. It's a festival of goofy connections. Switch out the steel for thatch and you've got third world residential construction.

I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.