Birdair Awarded Staten Island Children’s Museum Contract

Aug. 30, 2011 - PRLog -- Birdair, Inc., the leading specialty contractor of tensile structures of all sizes throughout the world, has been awarded the design-build contract for the cable and fabric roofing system of a 2,200 square-foot freestanding tensile structure at the Staten Island Children’s Museum in Staten Island, NY.

The new addition, called the Meadow Structure, features a translucent, photovoltaic fabric roof that collects solar energy to power low voltage lighting. Birdair has been hired to design and fabricate a 3,000 square-foot tensile roof featuring Birdair’s steel cable systems and PTFE, a Teflon®-coated woven fiberglass membrane. In addition, Birdair will be providing technical supervision during installation.

“This is the first project of its kind that combines thin-film photovoltaic panels and Teflon-coated fabric membrane,” said Brian Dentinger of Birdair, Inc. “We designed a system that supports the photovoltaic panels and allows the individual panels to be removed without disturbing the roof fabric.”

Upon completion later this year, the Meadow Structure will be used year-round as a flexible, weather-protected outdoor gathering and program space. Located on the grounds of Staten Island’s famous Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Museum is New York’s only indoor-outdoor interactive museum. Since 1976, the Staten Island Children’s Museum has provided interactive exhibits and creative workshops for children of all ages to explore the arts, sciences and humanities.

In addition to Birdair, the project team includes Marpillero Pollak Architects of New York City, Weidlinger Engineers of New York City, and Power Film Solar of Ames, Iowa providing the PV panels.

To date, Birdair has completed work on more than 1,200 tensile architecture installations worldwide. To learn more, visit www.birdair.com.

Teflon® is a registered trademark of E. I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company, Delaware.

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About Birdair: Birdair, Inc. is the leading specialty contractor of lightweight long-span roofing systems and tensile structures throughout the world, providing design-build solutions for architects and clients in all aspects of project design, engineering, installation and maintenance. The company offers a selection of architectural fabric membrane, including Tensotherm™ with Lumira™ aerogel®, the world’s only translucent insulated tensile membrane roofing material. Birdair, based in Buffalo, NY, is a member of the Taiyo Kogyo Group, with operations serving North and South America and other international locations. For more information about Birdair, call 1-800-622-2246 or visit www.birdair.com.