560 Lexington Subway Station Glass Facade

McLaren Engineering Group provided specialty structural engineering services for the design and fabrication of a new glass facade and subway entrance at the 560 Lexington Avenue Plaza in New York City, NY. This project included a range of high-quality custom glass and stainless-steel elements in a variety of applications. Through innovative engineering and some finite element (FEA) modeling and analysis, McLaren was able to refresh the aging station passageway into a striking, yet accessible entrance for commuters across the city.

The McLaren Difference: Applied Ingenuity

McLaren provided high-quality structural engineering services for the design and detailing of all the glass and stainless-steel elements, meeting rigorous performance specifications set by the project Architect, SOM. These designs included a 32-foot-tall vertical fin mullion and glass facade at the lobby, two glazed storefront sections for the Godiva and Starbucks stores, a 108-foot-long and 10-foot-tall kidney-bean shaped curved glass subway station entrance enclosure with a door and stainless steel pivot, a “live-edge” stainless steel bench surrounding the subway entrance, and a custom curved glass guardrail down to the subway.

The most challenging aspect of the project was engineering the centerpiece of the plaza, the 10-foot-tall curved, cantilevered and laminated glass wall with a 4,200-pound door supported on a rotating, oil-impregnated 9-inch diameter stainless-steel pivot and a heavy-duty custom caster roller on an embedded track. McLaren had to perform a high-fidelity finite element analysis to ensure that the massive door could be opened and closed twice a day by building personnel for public access to the subway.