Transparency and lightness dominate the designs for the two-glass canopies. Architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro have carefully integrated two elegant steel "sculptures" into the architecture of Avery Fisher Hall and the New York State Theater.
Two slightly outward-tilting steel beams just over 27m long are supported on a central Y-column. A circular hollow section passing right through the steel beams joins these to the building at one end, and together with the Y-column, which is rigidly bolted to the roof of the basement car park, ensures the necessary stability.
Suspended below, both beams are large-format panes of glass – 12 4-ply laminated safety glass panes each measuring 4.3m x 2.3m. Each one weighs almost 1.5 t! They are held at the corners with point fixings. Subsequently bonded together with a two-component injection compound to form a load transferring connection, glass and steel form a structurally effective composite. The steel beams were therefore assembled exactly with the help of templates and cambered in their length by applying heat to certain areas. Built according to an exactly calculated erection plan, 40t of steel and glass now form a perfectly horizontal line and even with a roof fall of just one degree the roof drainage functions reliably.
