The Schubert Club Band Shell, located on Raspberry Island in the Mississippi River, is an outdoor venue for concerts and performing arts. The island with scenic vistas in a central location had been neglected for many years but now offers the Band Shell and pedestrian walkways.
The double curved glass roof has a saddle-shaped surface and consists of a grid of stainless steel pipes with quadrangular meshes.
The laminated safety glass panels are point supported at the four corners. The meshes are stiffened by stainless steel rods in diagonal direction, thus forming triangular elements, the essential prerequisite for the favourable structural characteristic of a shell. This allowed the design of a thin, most transparent and delicate structure while fulfilling stringent safety requirements. The free-standing, self-supporting shell is designed so that it can withstand high snow loads, temperature fluctuations of up to 50 Kelvin and floods without damage.
The result is a stable, yet delicate, anticlastic shell structure. Both at day and at night, when the shell can be illumintated, it serves as a new landmark. The innovative steel and glass structure has helped to reincorporate the island into the surrounding urban fabric.
