Pan Gulf Technologies Engineering Services
AISC Awarded Zoological Project, USA
Get to know more about the project below
About The Project
01. The primate canopy trails weave weathering steel with nature in an interactive outdoor setting. The 35,000 sq. ft. exhibit includes multiple steel elements across eight different primate habitats.
02. Steel hollow structures were intertwined with live trees, and a winding boardwalk made of curved steel allows visitors a treetop view of the exhibit. Using a combination of painted and weathering steel offered two key benefits:
• It provided a solution for addressing external conditions in an outdoor environment.
• It gave a natural forest look, as desired by the architect and design team.
Description
Pan Gulf Technologies was entrusted with detailing the new Habitats 12, 13, 14, 21, 22, 23, and 24 as an addition to this Zoological Society project. The project was executed using SDS2 detailing software. The detailing proved challenging due to the structural geometry, slopes, existing site conditions, coordination, software limitations, and the COVID-19 work-from-home (WFH) pattern. Despite these challenges, the project was detailed efficiently and delivered on time by our team. This also proved to be a great learning and teamwork experience for the team.
After erection, the project looked stunning and garnered a lot of visitors' attention. It was also published in the "Modern Steel Construction Magazine" in May 2022 under the title “STRUCTURALLY SOUND.” This was a remarkable achievement for the entire detailing team involved in the execution of this project.
Our Challenges & Solutions:
Challenges:
The project had to be detailed in an SDS model, with foundational piers set at coordinates based on existing conditions. We had to match and coordinate these with the design drawings for location and elevations. The dimensions and elevations of the columns and rings could not be obtained in the model for the three largest habitats.
Solutions:
We brainstormed as a team and made the best possible assumptions. These assumptions later led to the easy approval of the drawings by the client.
We took a different approach here: since the ring was the most critical part of the habitat, it was finalized first using the design drawing elevation. A top-down approach was followed in the habitat detailing, where the topmost steel was finalized first, followed by the connection points, the degree and orientation of the bent HSS columns, and then the split base plate.
We also adopted a trial-and-error approach to achieve the best geometrical fit for the habitats. A lot of adjustments in dimensions, the degree of bends, slopes, and elevations were made to obtain the best fit, and these were approved by the design team in the submittals.
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