Disclosed is a process for manufacturing a building construction steel having excellent high-temperature characteristics, which can be marketed at an economically reasonable price. According to this process, a slab having a steel composition in which appropriate amounts of Mo and Nb are added to a low-C and low-Mn steel is heated at a high temperature and rolling is finished at a relatively high temperature, or a slab having a steel composition in which an appropriate amount of Mo is added to a low-C and low-Mn steel composition is heated at a high temperature, rolling is finished at a relatively high temperature, and at the subsequent air-cooling step, water cooling is started at a temperature of a ferrite fraction of 20 to 50% during the transformation from austenite to ferrite, water cooling is carried out to an arbitrary temperature lower than 550.degree. C., followed by air cooling.