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Project Details

Fabric 1

Sioen - Fluo2Max - Type III
Producer/Manufacturer: OTHER
Primary Use: Main Fabric

Engineer Name 1
Mar Ricketts, Chris Elkins

Engineer Company 1
GuildWorks, Pangolin Structural

Design Name
Mar Ricketts, Sebastian Collet, Beatriz Ferreyra

Design Company
GuildWorks

Architect Company
Gensler

Fabrication Company
GuildWorks

Installation Name
Sebastian Collet

Installation Company
GuildWorks

Please describe the project specifications

City Square is an office complex on Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix, Arizona featuring three office towers, two street-level retail buildings, and a shared common Plaza. We were brought on board to help with rebranding and revitalizing the Plaza for both the tenants as well as the surrounding community. In addition to providing large areas of shade for the intense Arizona heat, the client wanted our tension structure to help create an iconic plaza that would be a unique and artistic landmark along the Central Avenue Corridor.

The newly renovated plaza features seven custom shade sails supported by twelve masts and two building anchor points. The three central shade sails surround a new coffee cart building and feature a unique 6-point, split-cone design that has one up point and one down point in the middle attached to a central mast. This split-cone design is oriented such that views open up to the northern sky, but the sun is still blocked from the southern exposure. It is a very balanced, yet the asymmetric design that visually shape-shifts as one walks around the plaza.

What is unique or complex about the project?

The greatest challenge was the site itself as the plaza is located on an existing post-tensioned concrete slab over a multi-story underground parking lot that had only been designed for foot traffic. In order to make this work, we had to carefully design the support posts to land on existing columns and use x-ray imaging on the slab to avoid drilling into any of the concrete tension rods. We also had to be very creative to both distribute the load and balance the forces acting upward and downward so that we could work within the existing structural capacity. The challenge led us toward the split cone design and worked very well with our tallest post extending about 50 feet above the plaza to give them the height to be seen from a distance.

The client is very happy with this project as it makes the complex a desirable place to work and will help please the existing tenants and continue to attract more. We are proud of this project and happy to share the outcomes with the rest of the fabric structure community.

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