A special connection between Luxembourg and New York is taking shape at the Davis Center in Central Park, where 23 hand-crafted doors from Drinklange will soon welcome visitors.
The world famous Central Park in the middle of Manhattan is undergoing some exciting new changes to be ready for every season – a new pool for the summer and a new ice rink for the winter. As exciting as this sounds for New Yorkers, why should that interest us here in Luxembourg ?
The new Davis Center will bear a special grand ducal connection, featuring 23 large glass doors designed meticulously in the north of Luxembourg. For a whole three weeks, eight large boxes were heading from Drinklange, Troisvierges all the way to the Big Apple.
What's that wonderful saying again: No matter where you find yourself, somehow you will always end up encountering a Luxembourger, now even in New York's beloved Central Park. In April, the Davis Centre, a popular destination for locals during the summer, will be ready to open its (Luxembourgish) doors.
Dominique Vervoort from Brever, the company responsible for the doors, explained: "We produced 23 pivot doors in series. We had 4,20m tall frames which we fitted with pivoting windows offering a 1,40m space to pass through."
These intricate doors require meticulous and highly technical craftsmanship, all of which is done by hand in Drinklange. The project, in partnership with the company Keller, was ultimately brought to fruition in Luxembourg. With the temperature fluctuations in New York, the structure needs to hold and be functional in all seasons, otherwise the doors would be unusable.
"The quality of our glass cannot be found or delivered like this anywhere in the US nor in any other country come to think of it," Vervoort explained. "In Europe, we only have two delivery companies that have the capacity to deliver our products. Then our engineering expertise is unmatched and on top of that we have to conduct all the various tests to ensure that our doors are waterproof and airtight. We have our own testing centre in Troisvierges where we conduct these tests alongside Keller."
He continued: "To be able to offer a product like ours, we had to develop a machine for over seven months. Even the smallest pieces have to individually planned and produced: The different parts of the machine were specifically developed for this project. All the engineering work, the tests, until we had the right waterproofness: new profiles were developed to guarantee this. Imagine, at a height of 4.20m, you have to be sure that a structure like that can withstand the wind load, you can't leave anything to chance."...