Chicago Horizon

Chicago Horizon provides shade and a unique view to the city and Lake Michigan from Chicago’s Millennium Park. The pavilion is the winner of the BP Prize in the Chicago Lakefront Kiosk Competition for the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial.

The pavilion roof structure applies flat plate construction (typical to concrete) to wood. Two perpendicularly arranged layers of cross laminated timber (CLT) panels carry bending in the panel’s long direction. The perpendicular layers above and below provide shear and moment transfer between adjacent panels. The result is a thin 8.25in two-way spanning roof structure that spans approximately 30ft between columns. The columns are simple glued laminated sections, held off the ground by a steel plate and reinforced neoprene pad. The columns pass through slots in the roof panels to a horizontal circular steel plate, which connects to the top of the panels to hang the roof and provide an uninterrupted soffit.