Moynihan Train Hall Installation
TYLin provided structural engineering services to support a hand-painted triptych by noted American artist Kehinde Wiley that is one of three permanent art installations in the new Moynihan Train Hall.
The art piece, called Go, is composed of two glass layers: a stained-glass panel on top of a safety-laminated glass panel that is backlit with LEDs. To suspend the artwork from the 33rd Street entry ceiling, TYLin designed a steel grid support structure that matches the layout of the glass panels.
This grid, suspended from existing third floor steel framing, uses primary WT beams (wide flange steel sections that have been cut in half depth-wise). These are clamped to the bottom flanges of existing steel beams and the secondary plates spanning between the WT’s and are welded together. To account for load limitations, TYLin worked with DCM Fabrication to design a lightweight steel grid using extruded aluminum for connection elements. TYLin’s engineers also provided adequate dissimilar material separation to prevent corrosion.
TYLin designed the steel grid structure as nine independent panels that can be rigged into the ceiling one at a time. The firm also provided engineering services for reviewing the means and methods of this rigging process. Since field welding was not permitted, the firm’s engineers used mechanical fasteners for all field connections, including the attachment of the grid to the existing structure.
Kehinde Wiley, Go, 2020
© Kehinde Wiley. An original work of art commissioned by Empire State Development in partnership with Public Art Fund for Moynihan Train Hall.
Photographer: Nicholas Knight. Images courtesy of the Artist, Sean Kelly, New York, Empire State Development and Public Art Fund, NY.