Eaton's Center: Design of a Pedestrian Glass Sky Bridge

Halcrow Yolles was retained to design and install a glass bridge spanning across the top floor as part of a major renovation of Eaton's Center in Calgary. Its defining features are the 46 feet long laminated glass balustrades and the single slender steel mid-span support structure. Design work for the bridge was completed using a finite element model of the entire bridge allowing for a detailed analysis of stress concentrations in the glass at bearing bolt connections. Special attention was paid to the aesthetic demands of the project as well as the limitations to transporting and erecting large glass panels. This project demonstrates how state of the art glass production techniques in combination with leading edge design methodology can lead to architecturally interesting structures.