In general, control performance of the active control system is superior to that of the passive control devices. However, the active system require a large amount of external energy to operate the actuators. Semi-active control systems maintain the reliability of the passive control systems while taking advantage of the adjustability of the active control system. In this research, a semi-active orificed fluid damper having the capacity of about 2 tons was designed and fabricated. It is a two-stage damper with normally open solenoid valve. A series of tests was performed to grasp its performance characteristics. It was also applied to a 6-story steel structure subjected to random and seismic excitations for the confirmation of its validity on structural vibration absorption.