The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum had done its duty. Opened in 1972 in Uniondale, N.Y., the Coliseum not only had honored the military sacrifice of local veterans in Long Island’s Nassau County but had served as home to the one-time American Basketball Association’s New York Nets and the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders as well as hosted major events and concerts, including performances by Elvis Presley, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen.

But after more than four decades of dedicated service, the Coliseum was showing its age and in need of a major facelift.

While some architects and developers might have suggested a total teardown of the dated venue, New York City-based SHoP Architects and developer Forest City Ratner Cos., LLC, of Brooklyn, N.Y., saw the opportunity to sustainably retain the strong architectural massing of the arena while giving its façade an entirely new look.
“This building had great bones,” said John Cerone, associate principal and director of virtual design and construction, SHoP Architects. “With its 4-foot-thick concrete piers, we knew it could hold much more. We took a light approach to the project and decided to clip a metal design element to the existing structure.”

The intricate metal design system wrapping the 416,000-square-foot coliseum consists of approximately 4,700 unique aluminum “fins” created with 225,000 square feet of recyclable 4mm Alucobond® PLUS aluminum composite material (ACM) by 3A Composites USA in the naturAL Brushed finish.“Each of the elements in this system varies slightly in profile and dimension to create a subtle flow that reflects the big skies of the flat Long Island landscape.The materiality of the design evokes the area’s history as well – a reference to the Spirit of St. Louis, which departed a nearby airfield for the first non-stop solo transatlantic flight in 1927.

Alucobond was chosen to create the fins for its light weight and flexibility, according to Cerone.“Each of these fins has six folds,” he said. “We knew this would be a complicated folding and routing process. We wanted clean lines and several fields of interest to look at as you walk closer to the individual fins. The Alucobond material expresses flexibility. It’s very easy to form into precise shapes. We also loved the natural brushed aluminum finish. It picks up the ambient light and color well during different times of day and reflects the sky and sunset. As the crowd moves into the Coliseum, colors from their clothes and the surrounding trees also get reflected into the material.”

“Alucobond is the only material that can actually produce these shapes,” said Sobot. “It would be impossible to make these shapes with solid aluminum sheets; they can’t be folded in this fashion. … Additionally, when you look at renovating an existing structure that is designed for a certain weight load, it might not be able to withstand a heavy material. Alucobond is so light that it’s not usually a problem on a retrofit. Alucobond is very unique; it’s not your typical metal panel.”

The metal design system was created through “100 percent digital modeling,” according to Cerone, who said this process required SHoP crews to scan the entire exterior of the Coliseum with 3-D lasers to create digital files that would ensure the metal system fit onto the building while allowing the fins and space frame to be pre-fabricated in controlled environments.

The completed renovation has more than met Forest City Ratner’s goal “to transform a 45-year-old coliseum into a first-class destination for entertainment and sports and to serve the Long Island community”.