Billie Jean King National Tennis Center – Queens, New York

New Roof for An Existing Stadium

Challenge: Home to the prestigious US Open national Tennis tournament, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is a sizable stadium complex hoisting tennis events in Queens, New York. When the stadium needed a new steel roof erected overtop the building’s pre-existing structure, the already ambitious construction project was made all the more delicate by the particular conditions of the tennis court below. Metal shavings left over from drilling or debris from welding ending up on the seats and potentially tainting the precisely tailored finish of the court was a risk they couldn’t take and something this steel structure’s construction needed to be precisely engineered to avoid.

Solution: Not only did this solution require cleanliness, but welding was also deemed unfeasible due to the extreme height of the roof structure. High-friction BeamClamps were chosen as the engineering solution to attach the roof to the stadium’s steel structure. Using these BeamClamps meant the project could be completed much more simply than if these components were welded together. Additionally, all the unique requirements of the project, such as the cleanliness that needed to be adhered to in order to preserve the court, were satisfied without any issue. When all was said and done, the incorporation of BeamClamps were nearly invisible on the finished structure, providing a nearly seamless connection solution that satisfied all the project requirements.