Structural system for supporting a building utilizing light weight steel framing for walls and hollow core concrete slabs for floors and method of making same

A structural system for supporting a building comprising:

• (a) a first level of light weight steel framed, bearing wall panels, each having a bottom end attached to a foundation and a top end for supporting a floor, said bearing wall panels being spaced at predetermined intervals in a first direction along the foundation;
• (b) a first level of prefabricated, hollow core concrete floor slabs having top and bottom surfaces, longitudinal sides, and transverse ends, said bottom surfaces of the floor slabs being positioned upon the top ends of adjacent bearing wall panels such that the longitudinal sides of longitudinally adjacent slabs form keyways extending parallel to the first direction and the transverse ends of transversely adjacent slabs for butt joints extending perpendicular to the keyways;
• (c) a plurality of connection members including first parts having bottom ends attached to the top ends of the bearing wall panels and extending upwardly to a position below the top surfaces of the floor slabs, said connection members including second parts connected between the first parts and the floor slabs to positively interlock the bearing walls to the slabs thereby forming a unitary structure in which the floor slabs and bearing are interlocked and bearing loads are transmitted via a load path that includes the hollow core concrete floor slabs.