With an area of more than 5000 m2 the envelope of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is the largest FRP facade made to date in the USA. To obtain a building permit it successfully passed all the fire regulation tests that are obligatory where FRP is to be used above fourth story level on a high-rise exterior.

In comparison to other materials such as concrete or glass fiber reinforced concrete FRP offers the distinct advantage of a considerably lower weight. In the SFMOMA this led not only to drastic cost savings for the steel structure but also to a much shorter construction period. It made it possible to fix each of the 710 individually shaped panels to the steel frame structure via a single pass with the crane.

The FRP shells, which measure up to 1.50 x 9 m with a material thickness of just 4.7 mm, were first of all mounted on standardized insulated aluminum panels of the same size. This innovative solution could be implemented only thanks to a planning process that made use of the design-assist procedure, in which the various construction firms are involved in the engineering from the very start. (Snøhetta)