Counterweights

To begin installation of the end-wall's glass panels, counterweights are tied to varying lengths of cable. The longest cables require 24-ton weights.

A crane lifts steel counterweights into place.

Secured with stainless-steel fittings, 7/8" diameter cables are tied to the underside of each counterweight.

At the westerly end-wall, cast-steel weights suspended by 7/8" diameter stainless-steel cables hover over The Kimmel Center's 3rd floor offices.

Under The Kimmel Center's distinctive barrel-vault roof are two, 12,000-square-foot gable-end walls of unprecedented construction. Designed to withstand winds reaching 80 miles per hour, each end wall functions like a pendulum suspended in mid air. Attached with stainless steel cables less than one inch in diameter to cast-steel weights weighing up to 24 tons, the soaring glass walls are able to sway when weather dictates as much as two and one-half feet in either direction.