Outsourced Concrete Panels Shape Innovative Salt Lake Library

摘要

Novel structural systems are readily apparent in a new public library in Salt Lake City. The building boasts a 60 ft (18 m) tall, 220 ft (67 m) long curved wall of glass that resists wind and seismic loads with a grid of pretensioned cables. Adjacent to this transparent facade is the building's "walkable wall," a crescent of columns that rise in height and tilt increasingly toward the building as they approach it. In comparison with these elements, the precast-concrete panels that form much of the building's facade might seem ordinary. But these structural components too are unusual in that they were designed and cast in a suburb of Mexico City and then shipped about 2,300 mi (3,700 km) to Salt Lake City.