Shade Structures

The MGM The Park shade structures consist of 60-foot-tall steel structures composed of complex 3D bend steel plates. The sheets, fabricated in the Netherlands using shipbuilding technology, were assembled on-site with an innovative connection method. The combination of design by !melk, structural engineering by IMEG, and the fabrication expertise of AIP resulted in this spectacular installation.

IMEG provided structural engineering design services for three clusters of perforated, plate-formed shade structures. The project is located in a moderate seismic zone. Given the top-heavy shape, the seismic load governed the design. Three-dimensional dynamic analyses were performed to model the structures under seismic loads. Ample strength was achieved by compositely connecting a strong inner core to the stiff shell of the stems. The stems were anchored by embedding them and the core several feet into large, heavily reinforced drilled concrete piers. The piers extend more than 18 feet into the soil.