Museum Roof Structure

The great court is entered from the museum s principal level and connects all the surrounding galleries.

Museum roof structure.

Designed by foster and partners the great court is a two acre space enclosed by a spectacular glass roof with the world famous reading room in the middle. The atrium is wrapped in oak pabels and bathed in soft lighting. The roof is a feat of engineering with a concrete shell that is just 75mm deep at its thinnest point. Ross perot and his wife margot comes at one of the structure s higher points.

Ban s charge was to create a wood space frame with spans of more than 50 feet and cantilevers of 14 feet in a structural depth of 3 feet. This achieves a greater contextual integration while maintaining the openness of the site by continuing the usable green space over the museum roof. The visitor is immediately thrust into a large full height atrium topped as hobel suggested with the extraordinary billowing form of the roof swerving high above. Ceiling height requirements in the galleries at levels 1 and 2 set.

Architectural concepts the building is 100 ft 30 5m square with one level below grade and three levels above grade figure 3. The aspen art museum designed by architect shigeru ban includes a long span three dimensional wood space frame roof. It has three gables and a distinctive pitched roof. The roof s structural grid is formed by radial hollow steel sections box beams spanning between the reading room and the quadrangle which are interconnected by two opposing spirals so that the roof works as a shell.

In time it will be returned to it working condition as a carriage barn. Aspen art museum roof structure g. The space frame was to have two planes of. At its heart is the magnificent volume of the reading room now a major exhibition space which for the first time in its history is open to all.

An iconic structure in this scenario seamlessly inhabits rather than competes with the site bridging the community formally and functionally with the building s intent. Within the space there are information points a bookshop and café. Strict limits on the total building height set the top of roof at 47 ft 14 3 m above street level. The roof s dramatic and innovative design led to the commonwealth institute being considered one of the most significant pieces of modern architecture in london and it was one of the first postwar buildings to be listed designated as being of special interest by english heritage.

The hastings longfellow octagon house is one of less than 500 octagon structures left in the united states and. The grid size was determined by the maximum glass size available. To a degree all these intentions are apparent when entering the building.