On a daily basis, the University Center in downtown Philadelphia is full of college students, business people and tourists taking in the sites around town. One of the busiest SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) stations in the city is located in the heart of University Center at 30th Street and Market Street. This particularly demanding station was in dire need of improvements to the entryways and the head houses.
Profiles: Square Tubing, Wide Flange Beams, Angles
Material: 316/L Stainless Steel
Execution: Laser Fused
Industry: Architectural Applications
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Architect: Sowinski Sullivan Architects
GC/Erector: Neshaminy Constructors
SEPTA Station Improvement Project
The 30th Street & Market Street SEPTA Station is located right beneath the Drexel University Bridge in downtown Philadelphia. Centrally located within the busy University Center, this station has thousands of visitors every day and is unique in that it serves both the city’s trolley lines as well as the subway system.
In 2017, Sowinski Sullivan Architects (Sparta, New Jersey) completed designs for SEPTA to move forward with the improvement project to renovate the station entrances as well as adding two new elevators for public access to the street and mezzanine levels. This design called for stainless steel structural supports for both the glass head houses and elevator shafts.
Sharp Cornered Stainless Steel Tubing & More
Stainless Steel was the appropriate material choice for this project for a multitude of reasons. The first being that since these structures are outside and exposed to the elements, a material with exceptional corrosive resistance and strength was required. Specifically, 316/L grade stainless steel was the most suitable choice to meet these prerequisites. The design also called for modern features with the structural supports being completely visible to the public and commuters. For this reason, the specified material had to meet AESS guidelines in which sharp-cornered stainless steel profiles come into play.
With the alloy of stainless determined and the design finalized, the fabricator then had to source the specific shapes and sizes to fabricate the structures. This project called for two sizes of sharp cornered square tubing, one size of a stainless steel wide flange beam and a couple custom angle sizes. Stainless Structurals is the only producer of sharp cornered stainless steel tubing in the western hemisphere but also produces the beam and angles specified. In total, we supplied over 1,000 feet of tubing, over 2 tons of beam and over 1 ton of custom laser fused angles that shipped to Diamond Brite Metals for polishing before going to fabrication.
Stainless Steel for Any Application
Sharp cornered square and rectangle tubing is becoming very popular in many different architectural applications. Transportation hubs like this one for SEPTA and this one for the New York MTA are just a couple of examples in which we participated. If your application does not require stainless steel, these same sharp cornered profiles are feasible in carbon steel. We are here to help your designs become a reality. Contact us today for more information.
