The Pointe
Vancouver, British Columbia

AGS's contribution to this project was the Brise Soleil or horizontal decorative aluminum wings. The Brise Soleil wraps around the building from the third floor to the roof level at the thirty-forth floor.

At the third level, the Brise Soleil, which is actually a combination of aluminum extrusions, forms an aerodynamically, shaped wing that measures 634mm wide. It then steps back to 508mm wide and towards the very top, further reduces to 381mm. The extrusions are 133mm deep.

On the south-west corner, which is the left area of the photo, the Brise Soleil cantilevers almost 3m from its anchor before returning at 90-degrees, where a 2100mm cantilevered connection provides suspension.

The techniques for making the 90-degrees journey, together with some termination cuts measuring almost 1200mm, was the most demanding aspect of the engineering requirements for this work.

There was a total of 55 tones of extrusions required for this project. The extrusion process required 3 shapes to make the wing and 2 shapes for the anchoring. The anchor shapes, when combined weighed in excess of 25lbs per linear foot. Each was only 7" long.

All of the aluminum is finished in valspar acrodize hardcoat paint finish to simulate clear anodizing.