Airport Ballroom Expansion

Location
Newark, NJ

Structural Engineer
The Harmon Group

Architect
BLT Architects

Steel Joist Manufacturer
Canam

Steel Fabricator
Weir Welding Company

This project included the addition of a ballroom and improved food service preparation areas to be completed for the 2014 Super Bowl. 60DLH joists up to 70 ft long created the roof for the structure and also supported a complex system of loads below.

The 60DLH joists allowed for a large open area for the ballroom. Folding partitions were utilized to make the space flexible in terms of breaking it up for different events. The joists were able to carry these loads with minimal deflection to allow the flexibility of the space – a large open ballroom or several smaller spaces.

Airplane Assembly Plant

Transportation

Boeing’s new factory in North Charleston, SC is 697,000sf with a 1,037′ x 640′ column free factory floor. The 640′ clear span roof supports four 40 ton under-hung crane carriers with twelve different crane bridges.

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JetBlue Airways Airport Terminal

Transportation

This project provided a complete unit airline terminal with 28 gates and 465,000 total square feet of area. Joist framing for the roof structures allowed the designers to design a maximum performance framing system with absolute minimum weight and cost. Open web joists and joist girders were used throughout with moment connections allowing these elements to be used in some locations as a part of the lateral load resisting system. Large (up to 80,000 pound) air handling units are supported on roof structures using paired open web joists. In the main ticketing hall the repetitive use of a single profile open web joist allowed the architect to express the structural system as an architectural element.

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Parking Garage

Transportation

This project utilizes steel joists and joist girders to create a roof structure to support solar panels over the top level of a parking garage. A system of joists and joist girders were erected, light gauge support angles were attached across the joists and the solar panels were attached to the light gauge support angles.

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