It’s true. The world's most spectacular architecture depends on carefully engineered aluminium components that most visitors will never see.
When you take a material with a unique range of properties, like aluminum, and couple that with a remarkable manufacturing technology, like extrusion, you get the ability to turn impossible projects into viable ones.
Let me tell you about two of them.
The project I worked on was called the MSG Las Vegas Sphere Project. You would know it as The Sphere, a massive music and entertainment area that is the largest spherical structure on earth, and one of the most-photographed places in a city filled with incredible structures. The 366-foot-high (112 meters) Sphere has hosted bands such as U2 and the Eagles, among many others.
A project of this size has lots of suppliers and we were one of them. The project work that my company did, Hydro Extrusions in Montreal, spanned two years. Our end-customer was Leetwo Metal, a local business owned by Mike Lee, which had seen what we had done a few years earlier for another amazing project. I will get to that one a little later.
But this one, wow.
Spectacular even for Las Vegas
The Sphere has a 160,000-square-foot (15,000 m2) LED screen that wraps around its interior. This had been designed and manufactured by another Montreal-based company, SACO Technologies, and the screen is known to be the largest and highest-resolution LED screen in the world. It has 64,000 LED panels, each controlled by a circuit board housed in an aluminum frame. And more, these panels were to be manufactured in 780 different geometric shapes – with extremely tight tolerances.
This is size and complexity and precision.
The Sphere project involved 57 different cut lengths ranging from 3-to-24 feet. We extruded and painted more than 800,000 pounds (363 metric tons) of the aluminum extrusions used for the frames, then shipped the painted profiles to Leetwo. They then fabricated the extrusions that are housing the LED lighting pucks.
Anodizing versus high-performance painting
I mention that we had painted the extrusions. Leetwo initially wanted an anodized finish on the product, but after further discussion, we convinced them to switch and go with a high-performance painted finish, which we could do at our site. And we would add a 20-year extended paint warranty.
The main reason for the switch was money: By making this change, we would reduce Leetwo’s cost by going with paint as opposed to anodizing. And as a fully integrated aluminum company, we also were able to set the customer up with a metal contract for 1,000,000 pounds (454 metric tons) to help control their metal costs.
It all worked beautifully, and The Sphere has grown to become an iconic image of modern Las Vegas. Mostly, it was a very cool project for me, and every time I see this building, live or on television, it makes me happy and proud.
A hotel shaped like a guitar
The other project I wanted to talk about was another dream project for this dream material of ours: The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Florida.
Like Leetwo, SACO Technologies has been doing some serious work over the past 40 years. Their focus has been on making impressive LED video screens and lighting systems, and they are unfazed by complex projects. They have lots of experience in the music entertainment industry having built stages and stage equipment for a Rolling Stones World Tour, among others.
This project preceded The Sphere in our portfolio, and while it is vastly different, it has some similarities, too. Mainly, it is just as eye-opening and amazing as the other. Why? How about this: It is the first guitar-shaped hotel in the world. You have to see it to believe it.
Designed to resemble back-to-back guitars, the Hard Rock Hotel stands 450 feet (137 meters) high with 35 floors and 638 hotel rooms. The neck of the guitar extends 75 feet above the roof with light cannons blazing through. The strings of the guitar are Illuminated, and the rooms have floor-to-ceiling glass panels. It took three years to build.
I would call it an architectural wonder, no doubt.
Why the guitar shape? Well, why not? The guitar is a symbol of music, as well as the symbol of Hard Rock Café, Inc.
A significant project with precision-made aluminum extrusions
What we did with the Hard Rock Hotel, again drawing the best of aluminum’s properties with extrusion technology, was manufacture custom extrusions using profiles we typically supply to our customer base.
This sounds ironic, right? That such a complex-looking construction could be boiled down in parts to enable utilize relative simplicity in the way of extrusions?
I mean, we did face challenges. These included:
- Cutting to size extrusions in approximately 60 different lengths
- Drilling and machining so the parts could be installed on the building
- Powder coating each piece in two colors: Space Silver and Bone White
We also needed to package the parts on pallets, with specific instructions on how the pieces should be placed, so they could be organized efficiently by the customer.
One shop, one stop
This is the thing: When you find a supplier that has the material and the capabilities under one roof, and you are facing a project that looks so complex that you cannot sleep at night, then you should probably call for a meeting with the supplier and discuss support.
As a fully integrated aluminum company, we are attractive to customers who are looking for a true one-stop shop. And with the Hard Rock Hotel and The Sphere, the customers called us into meetings to better understand our offer before awarding us these wonderful projects.
I believe The Sphere project is one of the greatest achievements to come out of our Montreal plant. And the guitar-shaped hotel helped us land it.
Aluminum is a material that can make you slow down on the road and take a picture.
