Madison Square Garden

Reducing movement and vibration in bridges suspended from a stadium roof

One of the world’s most famous sports and entertainment venues, Madison Square Garden is a large, round building with seating for about 20,000 spectators. The Garden’s owners decided to suspend new viewing areas from the ceiling, installing two long bridges with seating along the length of the stadium. The project’s engineers engaged us to develop a mitigation strategy that would keep bridge movements at a comfortable level. The tuned mass dampers we used to solve the problem were unlike any we’d built before. Spectators have comfortably enjoyed hundreds of sports and music events from unique vantage points on the new bridges overhanging the action.