Bank of America, Luminous Grid Shell

This sculpture was designed to enhance the entrance lobby of the Bank of America headquarters building in Charlotte, NC. The undulating surface of dichroic glass tiles is an integral part of a grid-shell structure with machined aluminum nodes and high-strength stainless steel tension rods.

TriPyramid worked with the artist and structural engineer to design and analyze each element of the structure. TriPyramid then tested the concept with its glass compression “skin”, aluminum nodes and stainless tension rods. The test set-up TriPyramid provided had a sophisticated instrumentation system to monitor stress in each node as the loads were applied to the overall structure.

Finally, TriPyramid machined the aluminum nodes. Each location required a unique geometry, a feat of manufacturing made possible by digital design direct to computer controlled milling machines. TriPyramid also provided the tension rods and associated tensioning hardware.