Friday, February 7, 2003

New convention center to be 'cutting edge' in many ways

The new Georgia International Convention Center (GICC), which opens for business in April and will hold its official grand opening in June 2003, will be cutting-edge in many ways.

As construction crews work to complete the inside of the building at the intersection of Camp Creek Parkway and Roosevelt Highway, fabricators are busy putting the finishing touches on some of the unique exterior elements of the facility. A large metal "windsail," one of seven that will light the drive leading to the GICC was installed last week.

"Visitors and guests will be amazed at the unusual elements we have on tap for the new Georgia International Convention Center, the centerpiece of the new Gateway Center complex in College Park," said Hugh Austin, the Center's Executive Director.

"These windsails are one of the surprises of the architectural design that passersby can see from the road that provide a hint of the uniqueness of this facility."

According to William Bloodworth, President of Architectural Image Manufacturing, an Atlanta company that is fabricating and installing the windsails, these structures will be one-of-a-kind.

"Not by accident, the fabrication is very similar to the construction of an airplane wing. The internal structure consists of light weight aluminum 'ribs' that are specially engineered to allow the windsail to be flexible," Bloodworth said. "The major difference in the sculpture fabrication and an airplane wing is that the finished sculpture cannot have any exposed fasteners. An airplane would have many rows of exposed 'rivets,' but the intent of our designers was for a seamless monolithic look."

Architectural Image Manufacturing (AIM) was assigned the task of creating an unusual collection of sculptures for the drive leading up to the GICC that would be both artistic and functional.

The seven windsails will also contain a complex lighting system enabling more than one million possible lighting combinations. Due to the GICC's close proximity to Hartsfield International Airport, the aim of the lights could not be straight up into the sky.

The engineering for the windsail was accomplished with cutting edge 3-D modeling software, which created custom flat patterns for the 'aluminum skin' of the sculpture. In order to fabricate this sculpture, the outside shapes must be unfolded into flat shapes, similar to unfolding a large cardboard box. The only difference is that this sculpture consists of shapes that are parabolic, elliptical andalmost 50 feet tall.

The exterior aluminum skin was installed with a special space-age acrylic adhesive called Versilok. This fabrication technique requires that the exterior skin be installed with special clamps and weights, much like furniture would be glued and clamped together.

"Often, experienced welders and fabricators from other industrieswill rub their hands over the finished product with a perplexed look on their faces because they are intrigued withthe absence of visible hardware and welds," said Bloodworth. "This fabrication technique is very time-consuming, but the seamlessresults are incredible."

What happens after the sculpture is fabricated at AIM's Atlanta facility?

"Typically a structure this large would be painted on site; however, our goal is for the finish to be flawless and similar to that of a fine automobile," he added. "This required some ingenuity to build a huge custom indoor spray-booth in order to control the painting environment.It alsorequired special scaffolding to be set up so the craftsmencan access and hand rubevery square inch as theyprepareand paint this unique creation like a fine, custom car."

The shipment and installation of these huge structures also requires some special planning.

The production facility of AIM is only about eight miles from the GICC (as the crow flies) but the logistics require a special delivery route to avoid hitting the low bridges on the regular route.

The special routeincreases the trip distance toover 30 miles. The trailers used to deliver the sculptures have the lowest bed height of any logistics equipment available. The planning also has requiredthe mounting ofa tall fiberglass pole to a vehicle that will travel the route to make sure that the excessive height of the sculptures will not hit any power lines or low-flying red lights.

According to Bloodworth, the rigging and installation of these sculptures has taken many hours of engineering and planning to make sure that the exterior finish of the windsails will never come in contact with anything during the lifting. This requiredthe production ofspecial steel carriers that bolt on with blind fasteners and special rigging equipment that will set the sculptures in position outside the GICC. The time from the drive to the GICC until the rigging equipment is removed and the structures are securely in place is estimated to be six to eight hours.

"We know that there is nothing quite like these sevenartisticsculptures in the U.S.," said Austin.

"This will be one of the largest displays ofmonolithic metal artwork in theUS and we hope will serve to inspire our guests and others who plan such facilities across the nation and the world."

The windsails and exterior sculptures were designed by the Atlanta architectural firm of Smallwood Reynolds Stewart, Stewart and Associates.

The new Georgia International Convention Center is located in College Park near Hartsfield International Airport and will be the State of Georgia's second largest convention facility, with the largest ballroom in the state.

The new building will open for business in April and hold official grand opening activities in June 2003. As the centerpiece of the developing Gateway Center complex of hotels, rental car agencies and airport transportation, it features a number of unique architectural details, custom artwork and state-of-the-art capabilities. For more infor