Close Attention to Details

IMPRESSIVE DESIGN Architects chose nickel stainless for interior details

New terminal features stainless steel details in public spaces.

Nickel magazine, Jun. 02 -- The makeover of Toronto, Canada's Pearson International Airport, scheduled for completion in October 2003, is a major project, costing $4.4 billion and employing thousands of workers.

It is also a model for stainless steel interior detailing.

For example, S30400 stainless steel trim was chosen to cover the pins that tie the 43 roof girders of the new central part of the passenger terminal to the wishbones and vertical diagonal braces that transfer the roof load to the building.

The passenger terminal has an arched, curving roof reminiscent of a giant clam shell or armadillo's back. Inside, its 70-metre-long steel girders will be painted and left exposed to the passengers passing beneath.

On the airside of the terminal are 86 round cap plates 300 millimetres (mm) in diameter by 70 mm high, fabricated from 13-mm plate and screwed with 258 flathead socket bolts to each end of the pins tying the girders to the wishbones. The pins measure 20 mm in diameter and are 30 mm long. Curbside, 172 cap stainless steel plates, each 140 by 20 mm, are fastened with 172 flathead socket bolts to each end of the pins tying the 18-metre-long vertical diagonal braces to the roof and the building.

Another 84 cap plates are attached with field bolts to pin connectors on the third-floor bracing, visible to passengers on the third and second floors. The architect did not want the pin cover plates to rust, says Mike FitzGibbon, project manager for Canron Construction Corporation East, the fabricator and erector of the structure. He adds: "The architect wanted to see stainless steel detail."

Mike FitzGibbon, project manager Canron Construction Corporation East Address: 100 Disco Road Rexdale, Ontario, Canada M9W 1M1 Tel: 1-416-675-6400 Fax: 1-416-675-6522 E-mail: mikef@canron.com

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