Saar Stahlbau in New York City

This is an address that all art lovers are famliar with: 11W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019 is the location of the “Museum of Modern Art”, or MoMA for short, one of the most important modern art museums in the world. This magnet for visitors at the edge of Central Park is currently being extended for around 400 million dollars and, on its completion in 2019, it is set to be one of the most futuristic buildings in the mega-city.

This is a spectacular project in which Saar Stahlbau GmbH is also involved. The Saarstahl subsidiary with its headquarters in Völklingen supplied components for the so-called tuned mass damper weighing a total of around 500 tonnes.

The tuned mass damper is crucial for the stability of a building of this height and construction. "The component is mounted at the very top of the sky scraper. With its mass, it compensates for movements of the building caused by wind load through a countermovement and thus reduces these to a minimum", explains Andreas Steffan, Managing Director of Saar Stahlbau. Saar Stahlbau manufactured the intermediate frame and troughs for the reaction mass for this tuned mass damper. 

The intermediate frame of the tuned mass damper alone weights 60 tonnes; an impressive construction which is made up of several steel components welded and screwed together. The troughs weigh over 56 tonnes. "They are installed in the frame on site during assembly and then fitted with steel plates, the so called damper weights", explains Steffan. "These add an additional weight of 370 tonnes".

When the complete tuned mass damper is installed at the MoMA construction site, all of the components must fit together precisely to the millimeter. This requires that the specified welding and measurement tolerances are adhered to exactly. The concept, design and planning of the component were carried out by the Berlin-based company GERB. Saar Stahlbau has already worked several times for the company, which operates worldwide in the field of vibration insulation, and, due to its expertise, Saar Stahlbau was also awarded this contract.

Source: Saarstahl AG