Grand Canyon Skywalk, Arizona: a 21 m glass walkway with two-layer glass balustrades.

Reference project — not a Eurowindow project. This article summarises public information from the sources listed at the end, with our own commentary. Images belong to their owners and are embedded directly from Pinterest with a link back to the source.

The project at a glance

• Name: Grand Canyon Skywalk, Eagle Point, Grand Canyon West, Arizona, USA (on Hualapai tribal land)
• Architect/contractor: Designed by Mark Ross Johnson; main contractor Executive Construction Management, Las Vegas (per Wikipedia)
• Timeline: Unveiled 20 March 2007; opened to the public 28 March 2007 (per Wikipedia)
• Structure: Cantilevers 70 ft (21 m) from the canyon rim; steel box beams 32 in (810 mm) wide by 72 in (1,800 mm) deep; vertical drop below of 500–800 ft (150–240 m) (per Wikipedia)
• Floor and balustrade glass: Floor built from 4 layers of Saint-Gobain Diamant low-iron glass interleaved with DuPont SentryGlas; the side walls/balustrades are 2-layer glass, 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) tall (per Wikipedia)
• Load & dimensions: Floor designed for a 100-pound-per-square-foot (490 kg/m²) live load; maximum 120 people at once; overall walkway width 65 ft (20 m), deck width 10 ft 2 in (3.10 m) (per Wikipedia)

What stands out in the glass balustrade

According to Wikipedia, the Grand Canyon Skywalk is a horseshoe-shaped walkway designed by Mark Ross Johnson, opened to the public on 28 March 2007, cantilevering 70 ft (21 m) from the canyon rim on Hualapai tribal land. The supporting frame is steel box beams 32 in wide by 72 in deep, suspending the walkway 500–800 ft above the canyon floor.

The entire floor and surrounding walls are glass: the floor is built from 4 layers of Saint-Gobain Diamant low-iron glass interleaved with DuPont SentryGlas film, while the side walls/balustrades are 2-layer glass standing 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) tall. The floor is rated for a 490 kg/m² live load, but the number of people allowed on the walkway at once is capped at 120 for safety, even though the article calculates that 822 people at 200 lb each would not exceed the structure's load capacity.

Note: Wikipedia does not give each glass layer's thickness in millimetres; we quote only the layer count and the figures that could be read.

Our take

From a glass walkway suspended over a canyon, three takeaways for glass balustrades:

1. A load-bearing glass balustrade usually needs several laminated glass layers, not a single pane. Interlayer film (PVB/SentryGlas) between the layers keeps the glass load-bearing even if one layer cracks. See Eurowindow glass balustrades.
2. Design load and the maximum allowed headcount are two different figures, and both need to be stated clearly. A structure can have enough capacity yet still cap occupancy to manage operational risk.
3. A glass balustrade's height should be set by safety codes, not by aesthetics alone. A 1.57 m-tall glass balustrade on a public structure shows the safety margin was prioritized over minimalism.

If you are weighing options for a high-rise project, send your brief to the Eurowindow technical team to discuss specifics.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Grand Canyon Skywalk
• Archilovers — Grand Canyon Skywalk photo gallery
• Pinterest — pin: Archilovers – pin reference

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