The Gaoyang International Cruise Terminal is the first facility of its kind in the world to be placed underground; a bubble-shaped glass-clad observation building floats over it at one end.

New York, NY – Weidlinger received a prestigious Structural Systems Platinum award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC New York) for China’s first modern international cruise terminal at Gaoyang Pier. Located on the north bank of Shanghai’s Huangpu River, it is the first facility of its kind in the world to be placed underground and establishes a new base for the Eastern Pacific Rim cruise industry. The award was presented at ACEC New York’s 2009 Engineering Excellence Awards gala on April 4, 2009.

Weidlinger collaborated on the Gaoyang International Cruise Terminal project with New York’s Frank Repas Architecture. The precedent-setting buried terminal—naturally insulated, passively cooled, and covered by an extensive at-grade park—is also evidence of China’s emerging green awareness. Most challenging from an engineering viewpoint, was the bubble-shaped observation building that floats over one end of the buried terminal, announcing its presence along the river. The building was essentially completed, tested, and used for demonstration purposes in 2008, but awaits official opening.

“I am very pleased to receive an award that represents a successful collaboration among countries and that provides new opportunities in the global economy,” said Tian-Fang Jing, Weidlinger principal-in-charge and Design Director of Weidlinger’s East Coast Buildings group. “The riverside terminal is a milestone for Shanghai and will spur development along the river. The bubble building especially tested the creativity of a worldwide team. The asymmetrical ellipsoid structure was designed in New York, sheathed in high-performance solar-controlled glass panels manufactured by a French company in Germany, and successfully constructed under the leadership of an engaged public and private partnership in Shanghai.”

Cruise Terminal
The 67,500-square-meter underground terminal, rectangular in plan, descends three levels from vehicle access and waiting room to baggage handling to parking. An arched concrete pedestrian bridge, spanning 95 meters, rises out of the ground over the waiting room and merges with the huge skylights at both ends. The structure’s numerous skylights flood the first level with natural light and, along with the free-form bridge, blur distinctions of up and down, inside and out. “The green membrane defining the kilometer-long park surface morphs and stretches upward as a bridge,” explains the project’s architect, Frank Repas. “This form combines the functions of skylight, gateway, and amphitheater to frame the urban vista aboveground for park users and invite them into the light-filled depths below.” Boarding platforms connect the waiting room to the dock, which can accommodate three 80,000-ton luxury liners at one time.

Observatory
Designed to resist significant seismic and wind loads, the 4,100-square-meter transparent bubble-shaped building posed obvious challenges for Weidlinger as structural engineer. The three-level structure rises 10 meters above the park on 10 steel-tube columns, which increase in diameter from 550 to 800 millimeters at the top. It is supported partially by its own curvature and partially by its two upper floors. Lateral bracing is provided by the 10 columns and by the terminal’s steel elevator and stairway cores. The building’s final shape was defined by the strict orientation requirements of the Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal Development Company; its curvature was determined by manufacturing constraints. The Port’s development partner, Franshion Properties, was active in the design process.

Weidlinger worked with Frank Repas Architecture and glass consultant RFR, Paris and Stuttgart, to harmonize the steel frame and glass facade while honoring the client’s request that the irregular elongated glass panels be flat for cost reasons. Only certain geometries produced the rectangular and trapezoidal flat panels required. Weidlinger was asked to produce final construction documents, an uncommon arrangement for American engineers working in China, not only because of the intricate design but also because erection tolerances were 10 millimeters for the glass panel installation. Erection was completed in five months.

Frank Repas Architecture (www.frankrepasarchitecture.com) is an independent architectural practice in New York City established in 2000. The work of architect Frank Repas is hallmarked by a “new recombinant minimalism” and an unprecedented mixing of divergent large scale uses and unconventional locations. Repas was a Senior Fellow at Dartmouth College and winner of the Kelley Prize for his master’s thesis at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has been an invited guest critic at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Founded in 1921, American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (www.acecny.org) is one of the oldest organizations of professional consulting engineering firms in the US. The members of the statewide association represent all major engineering disciplines and range from highly specialized solo practitioners to multidiscipline firms employing thousands with branch offices worldwide.