Project: New York, 2006, Forming and Computing

In New York City Ian Schrager built a 11-floor apartment block at 40 Bond Street (opening 2007), designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

In front of the building is a three-dimensional gate, made out of casted aluminum, 127 ft long and between 8 and 23 ft high.

The shape of the gate is made up of four basic modules which are fitted seamlessly together in varying combinations.

Founder of EXYD Detlef Schobert, working under the supervision of the architects, developed the modules from supplied outlines of graffitis, fused them together and constructed the numerical model of the sculptural Gate.

Progress was checked from time to time with expanded polystyrene moulds (Munderich). Above left: June 2005. Above right: November 2005.

Illustrated above are preforms shortly before despatch to the US (December 2005).

The illustration above shows the casting of a segment of the Gate in Autumn 2006 (aluminum casting, foundry Polich Tallix with Bo Gehring, structural analysis DeSimone).

Above and below: installation of the Gate, June 2007 (photos above Curbed and photo below Bo Gehring).

Below: 40 Bond with creation of the Gate in "The Articulate Surface: Ornament and Technology in Contemporary Architecture" (Ben Pell, Birkhäuser, 2010).