Raymond & Susan Brochstein Pavilion
Structural engineer : Haynes Whaley Associate, Walter P. Moore
A square in plan, the pavilion is supported by a steel frame around its perimeter, which holds floor-to-ceiling panes of high-performance glass. The column-free interior is interrupted only by a core that houses restrooms, storage, and the mechanical room a level below.
Designers addressed lateral torsional buckling concerns for the stacked steel bar grid and analyzed various required cambers to meet the exacting requirements of a flat and level finished trellis structure with a leading edge of only ľ in. This delicate steel grid is held 17 ft in the air by slender 4˝-in. square billet columns with concealed fixed bases. The architect required submission of a sample of the column to verify the hot rolled billet would have acceptably square, unrounded corners. To ensure the aesthetic integrity of the trellis versus
constructability, designers closely coordinated all details during the design phase. Splices in the structural steel members were coordinated with the architectural grid to create manageable
lengths and were detailed with mortised joints and decorative head steel bolts. The steel fabricator and erector met the architecturally exposed structural steel tolerances, which were
required to align and attach the prefabricated aluminum trellis frames to the top of the steel grid, without any need for fieldmodifying the shop-fabricated steel. The finished trellis forms an open shaded area for exterior seating surrounding the pavilion. Four 77 ft by 15 ft clear glass curtain walls form a square and enclose the pavilion. The exterior steel columns supporting the structural steel roof were limited to the smallest structural steel wide-flange shape of W4×13. These exposed columns are spaced at 7 ft all around the perimeter and are integrated as part of the glass wall support system. Each vertical mullion is placed in front
of and attached to a W4 column. Each horizontal mullion is in front of and attached to a horizontal ST2×43/4 spanning between the W4 columns. This allows the sizes of the aluminum mullions to be minimized and enables the architect’s desire for an unencumbered
visual connection between exterior and interior. Likewise, the view from interior spaces to the exterior is unencumbered, since the structure has no interior columns other than those concealed within the 14 ft by 49 ft service core. This required spans of 42 ft to the W4 exterior columns, created with W18 beams that are partially exposed by the perforated metal ceiling. The beams are spaced at 7 ft on center and coordinated with the perimeter curtain
wall, shrouded skylights, sprinklers, and the perforated metal panel ceiling which partially exposes them. The building was detailed with AutoCAD and analyzed with Risa3D.
Jurors noted the link between form and function. “A great use of innovative design and modeling that shows the importance of the integrative approach to design,” said George
Tuhowski. Mark Carter was “impressed mightily by the grace of the structure and the practicality of its use” and called the design “absolutely delightful.”