Challenge

  • This renovation was originally meant to happen in 2 separate phases, with a 1 year interruption in between.

  • The pandemic offered an opportunity to combine both phases, to accelerate the schedule, and to finish earlier.

  • But the pandemic also created a shortage of raw materials and drastically extended all lead times.

  • The bronze panels got affected the most, due to a world-wide interruption of the production mills during 9 months.

David Geffen Hall /

Lincoln Center renovation

1) David Geffen Hall renovation - accelerated schedule through Covid years

Solution

  • Due to the US army preemptively seizing all brass ingots in 2021 for ammunitions, there was an early bronze shortage in America.

  • We discovered this unprecedented restriction 6 months prior to the date that we had planned to buy the bronze sheets.

  • Within a week, we immediately bought all bronze sheets still left available on the market, and stored them.

  • Nevertheless, we were still short of 80 sheets, which we had to explore 20+ mills around the world to order from. We finally placed an order to a mill located in Bulgaria, with a 9 months lead time

  • Eventually, when the 80 sheets got manufactured in Bulgaria and ready to ship to us, no container nor boat was to be found to ship by sea.

  • So we flew 40 sheets in a crate by plane, and we waited another 2.5 months for an available container to ship the last 40 sheets by sea. Those arrived in the US at the very end of the fabrication!

Home of the New York Philharmonic, this $550 million vast renovation of the existing hall at the Lincoln Center includes the auditorium, the lobbies and the amenities. In this 2 years long project, our scope are the glass and bronze guardrails all throughout the stairs and the hall.

Challenge

  • The Design Team wants the guardrail to be bent glass at the 30 corners of the guardrails, with some straight sections "wings" before and after the curve.

  • The glass must be laminated (for safety) but the radius is unusually tight (8").

  • The glass is only pin-mounted to bronze posts at both ends Left and Right of the pane, not in the middle.

2) David Geffen Hall renovation - curved glass

Solution

  • Only one manufacturer, located in California, can do this glass product.

  • Before lamination, each half-thickness piece is bent and chemically strengthened (full temper is not doable in this application).

  • This unusual safety glass makeup is analog to the one used in the Apple stores interior stringers.

  • It is not as strong as fully tempered, and can easily crack up to 3-4 weeks after installation. We experienced 20% breakage with this glass.