Education | Zahner

Irving Courtyard

Irving Courtyard Screenwall at Kansas City Art Institute

The Irving Courtyard Screenwall is a large gateway, entry and artwork designed by Gastinger Walker and made by Zahner for the Kansas City Art Institute, completed in 2006. The architecture firm worked with Zahner engineers and fabricators to design, build, and install the sculptural screen which protects the school’s northwest entrance.

The design uses a custom die and unique pattern. Zahner software translated the architect’s pattern into a machine language to custom perforate the panels. The material is a preweathered corten or weathering steel surface.

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Irving Courtyard

Exterior view of the perforated metal gateway entry for Kansas City Art Institute.

Custom obround die-shapes were used to create the oval perforation patterns in the weathering steel.

The large gate provides a sense of privacy while allowing for open events at the school.

The perforated metal gate motif continues onto the brick wall as an wall-mounted metal artwork.

Washington Elementary

January 4, 2017/in Exterior Architecture Education, Passive Security Sacramento--California HMC Architects Brown, Silver M, S 2016 /by cmorris

Washington Elementary School in Sacramento

Washington Elementary School in Sacramento features a number of unique metal elements manufactured by Zahner using ImageWall for custom perforated metal. Working for Landmark Construction with the designers at HMC Architects, Zahner provided the screens with custom perforated imagery on stainless steel and pre-weathered steel. These screen elements were used to provide passive security and signage while expressing the school’s creativity, science, and technology — marking a new shift towards practicing the STEAM curriculum (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics).

To establish this new shift in education, Sacramento City Unified School District partnered with city leaders and Principal Dr. Gema Godina-Martinez to envision the transformative shift and redesign of Washington Elementary School. The school pursued a STEAM academic program, becoming a magnet for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math education.

HMC Architects was challenged to redesign classrooms and collaborative learning areas not only to support student-centered learning, but to also influence the culture of the school’s educational experience. The project had a tight schedule. This transformation needed to be completed in less than a year to meet the Fall 2016 grand re-opening.

North entrance with perforated images of

North entrance for Washington Elementary School in Sacramento.

When HMC Architects developed the gate design for Washington Elementary, one of the considerations dictating the design decisions was how to provide security for the elementary school students. The project team employed passive security design measures by developing an open-air security gate which would ensure student’s safety while also promoting a playful STEAM atmosphere.

The architects came up with a creative security solution: the picture perforation pattern is more open at children’s height, while densely perforated at adult heights of 4′ to 6′ — ensuring that young students have greater visibility while adults will have greater difficulty seeing into the open air school commons.

Passive Security in Architecture

If you're designing a building for security, it's important to think about how your design's defenses can be met sustainably — and to also consider how these measures can be achieved without antagonizing its inhabitants.

North screenwall at Washington Elementary.

North screenwall with the Washington Elementary in Sacramento.

DETAIL OF THE LOGO SCREENWALL FOR THE WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY IN SACRAMENTO.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

The contractor attached Zahner perforated panels to a galvanized steel structure.

South screenwall at Washington Elementary.

Detail of perforated stainless with Angel Hair finish at Washington Elementary.

Detail of the North entrance gate for Washington Elementary.

North entrance with gear motif on the school's entrance.

NORTH SCREENWALL WITH LOGO FOR THE WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY IN SACRAMENTO.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

Detail of perforated stainless steel at Washington Elementary.

Original signage for the Washington School House.

Perforated stainless steel doors at Washington Elementary.

Detail of the perforated stainless steel door.

Doha Student Housing

January 4, 2017/in Exterior Architecture Education, LEED Asia, Doha--Qatar, International, Middle East Burns & McDonnell Blue-grey, Silver L 2012 /by cmorris

Qatar Foundation Education City Student Housing Complex

The student housing complex for the Qatar Foundation’s Education City initiative is a large scale project consisting of two campuses. The complex is designed by Burns & McDonnell who brought in Zahner to provide various metalwork in titanium and stainless steel.

The design for the complex incorporates local culture with modern technology to create a unique, world-class facility for the students of Education City. A traditional Islamic village, consisting of five neighborhoods joined together by a village street leading to a central plaza, inspired the architectural design.

Zahner’s scope was fabrication and furnish-only, providing the spiral centerpiece for the campus. Local contractor teams installed the panels. The building complex is energy independent, generating its own power. This is the first student housing complex in the world to achieve LEED Platinum certification.

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Sidra Medical Center

Zahner produced the three massive 'wings' which salute the sky using ZEPPS, Zahner's process for designing and manufacturing complex structural forms. The subtle dual curvature required precise engineering and intelligent organization of components.

Qatar Foundation Education City Student Housing Complex

Bloomberg Center

December 30, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Education, LEED New York City Morphosis Gold, Green L 2017 Featured /by cmorris

Bloomberg Center at Cornell Tech

Bloomberg Center is the flagship building on Cornell Tech’s Roosevelt Campus in New York City. The Morphosis-designed building features a louver-perforated skin manufactured by Zahner. The double-skin facade fits into the building’s Net Zero energy plan to operate as a self-sufficient and energy-efficient building. The center is also targeting LEED Platinum Certification.

Hacking a Robot to make Louvered Facades

In the Summer of 2015, Zahner’s ShopFloor team was tasked with developing several methods for louvered perforations to create picotage-effects for architectural metal.

Detail of the louvered perforation patterns on color-shift iridescent painted aluminum panels.

Perforation patterns on color-shift iridescent painted aluminum panels.

Image-perforated metal with color-shift iridescent painted aluminum.

Detail of the perforated metal facade during construction.

Color-shifting painted aluminum moves between bronze and green color-tones.

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Gates Hall at Cornell

The project's facade is designed using generative processes developed by Morphosis. Its unique appearance also serves the building's environment performance, reducing heat gain while providing natural light into the offices and classrooms.

The Ames Library

December 30, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Education Bloomington--Illinois Shepley Bulfinch Richardson Grey L 2002 /by cmorris

at Illinois Wesleyan University

Zahner worked with the architects at Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott, to manufacture a new roof for the Ames Library at Wesleyan University. The double-locking standing seam panel system was fabricated using lead-coated copper for its historic construction. The $25.7 million facility opened in January 2002 and remains a symbol of Illinois Wesleyan’s achievements and aspirations.

“It is no exaggeration to say that the faculty of Illinois Wesleyan regards the building of a new library as the final, and finest, achievement of our evolution into a distinctive national liberal arts college.” – Robert Bray, the R. Forrest Colwell Professor of English

Cincinnati Tower

December 30, 2016/in Art & Sculpture Education, Monument, Sculpture Cincinnati--Ohio Machado & Silvetti Silver M 1997 /by cmorris

The Ronald F. Walker Tower at the University of Cincinnati

University of Cincinnati features an iconic tower designed by Machado Silvetti with Zahner-manufactured stainless steel. The monument acknowledges the contributions of the Sigma Sigma Fraternity. Machado Silvetti’s design provides an apex which represents both the University and the Sigma Sigma fraternity.

The tower has a number of symbolic aspects in its design. Its square base forms the letters U and C on alternating sides. Above these letters, the main wooden shafts rise in the form of hammers. These motifs reflect the fraternity’s motto, “The torch burns; the hammers ring.” At the top, a beam of light shines through a stylized stainless steel torch and changes colors through the use of a computer program.

Zahner was involved in various metal components, and the stainless steel perforated “flame” at the sculpture’s top. The fifty foot high permanent artwork was commissioned by The University of Cincinnati in 1998.

The tower establishes a formal entrance to the new Commons from University Avenue. As a placemark on the school’s campus, it marks a memorable place for the university community. To this end, employing a design technique of totemic origins, the design stacks varied elements that legibly symbolize the university and the fraternity. Firmly set on its cast in situ concrete base, the tower forms the university’s monogram, representing the institution’s foundational role.

Above, a shaft of dark wood, polished metal, and precast concrete convey the fraternity’s symbols, the hammer and the Greek letters — or labor and the culture of Occident. On top, a lantern of perforated stainless steel construction stands for enlightenment and knowledge, the ultimate goal of the school and its people.

Artists model of the Sigma Tower Sculpture

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Bowdoin Museum of Art

The new building entrance resembles a glass box on three sides, with the remaining portion clad in a Zahner fabricated naval brass with a custom bronze patina. The patinated metal panels continue from the exterior to the interior angled soffit, completing a dramatic entry for the museum’s 19th Century collection.

While the legibility of these symbols by those who belong to this community is important, the arcane opacity the tower produces in those who do not know or belong is equally important to us. The tower produces an effect in those who witness it — an enigmatic, strange, and perhaps even seductive effect. The shear result of form and materials and light longing to attain beauty is equally memorable.

NMSU Theatre

December 26, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Education, LEED, Performance Center Las Cruces--New Mexico Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture Silver M 2014 /by cmorris

Center for the Arts at New Mexico State University THEATRE

The Center for the Arts at NMSU Theatre is a design by Malcolm Holzman which includes a series of Zahner-manufactured custom railings. The new building is located at the corner of University Avenue and Espina Street.

The project, lead by Malcolm Holzman of Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture includes an earth-toned aesthetic with custom guardrail designs developed and manufactured by Zahner for the new performance and rehearsal center.

The three-story state of the art academic building is 59,000 gross square feet with a large performance space for theater and dance, which has an orchestra pit and trap room, orchestra level, two balconies and fly tower. The building also features a large rehearsal room, classrooms, office and back-of-the-house supporting areas.

Detail of the custom undulated steel curtains used on the Center for the Arts at NMSU.

Interior of the theater at NMSU Center for the Arts.

THE MARK AND STEPHANIE MEDOFF THEATRE

The building’s main auditorium, The Mark and Stephanie Medoff Theatre, is a 466-seat theater lined by 4 levels of balcony seating. These balconies were outfitted by Zahner using a metal curtain system developed for creating billowing aesthetics on a small scale.

INTERIOR BALCONY CUSTOM RAILINGS

Lining each of the theater’s balconies are a series of artistic guardrails developed with Zahner. These artistic guardrails served as a creative solution referencing the theater curtain. The design was developed with Zahner using the custom zinc-plated mesh, which was formed by hand and then stiffened using a galvanic cladding process.

EXTERIOR TERRACES CUSTOM RAILINGS

The building’s three exterior terraces are lined with the same custom guardrail design used for the interior balconies.

The building received a LEED Gold Certification. The New Mexico State University Center for the Arts was completed in 2012 for the New Mexico State Centennial.

Gehry Horse Head

December 14, 2016/in Art & Sculpture, Interior Architecture Education, Sculpture, Workplace Northeastern United States, Princeton--New Jersey Frank Gehry Partners Blue-grey, Grey M, S 1997 /by cmorris

Frank Gehry Horse Head Conference Room at Princeton University

Zahner worked for long-time partner Frank Gehry to construct the original “horse head” sculpture and conference room, which now is on display at Princeton University.

Sheets of lead were hammer-formed over a plywood structure which encases a semi-private meeting space for students at Princeton University, pictured below. This was the first use of the horse motif by Frank Gehry. He would later produce a nearly identical form for the DG Bank building in Berlin nearly twice the size.

World-Architects’ John Hill profiled the sculpture at Princeton University in 2015, and discussed some of the history of the project.

“Yet Gehry did not design the sculptural “horse’s head” piece for Princeton, or as a conference room. It was to be a small part of a huge 22,000-square-foot (2,044-sm) residence for Peter B. Lewis in Lyndhurst, Ohio, but after ten years of numerous iterations the project was cancelled. Luckily a mockup, framed in wood and covered in lead, found a second life in the Icahn Lab, providing a suitable contrast to Rafael Viñoly’s curved glass wall and two-story atrium.”

— John Hill, World Architects

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Weatherhead School

The 22 ga stainless steel surface resembles an undulating, unbroken ribbon. Finished in #4 satin, the surface is more reflective than Angel Hair or GB-60 but less diffuse than a mirror-finish.

Frank Gehry Horse sculpture at Gagosian Gallery.

Installation of the horse head sculpture at Gagosian.

Frank Gehry with model for Parc des Ateliers.

Second version of the sculpture made for the DZ Bank building in Berlin

DeBruce Center: Rules of Basketball

November 3, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Education, Museum, Parking Structure Lawrence--Kansas Gould Evans Associates Silver, White L 2016 /by cmorris

DeBruce Center and the KU Rules of Basketball

DeBruce Center is a Gould Evans-designed building featuring Zahner engineered metal systems throughout its interior and exterior. Zahner completed multiple scopes on the project, including the exterior and interior panels of bridge that connects to Allen Fieldhouse, guardrails, and the perforated scrim walls which enclose its adjoining parking structure.

The building complex was developed around a single piece of basketball history. The original Rules of Basketball, written in 1891 by James Naismith (the inventor of basketball and founder of the KU basketball program) were purchased and donated to the school, and have found their permanent home at DeBruce Center, a new facility adjoining the northeast corner of Allen Fieldhouse at KU.

The existing Allen Fieldhouse building at KU is now connected by a bridge to the Debruce Center. This connects the new exhibit and visitor center to historical Allen Fieldhouse, where the KU basketball team regularly plays their local games. This connection helps to physically explain the history of KU’s sports program. James Naismith (the ‘father’ of basketball) and Forrest “Phog” Allen (the ‘father’ of basketball coaching) each had an integral role in building this legacy. By physically connecting the two spaces, the designers at Gould Evans have built a literal link between the past and future of basketball at KU.

The bridge, which connects the DeBruce Center and Parking Garage to the Allen Fieldhouse.

Creating the Exterior Bridge at DeBruce Center

The Zahner team was tasked with creating large cut-out aluminum panels bearing the original rules for the game of basketball. The interior panels also contain a direct screenprint of text on aluminum, which maps out the visage of Naismith and Phog Allen.

The aluminum panels for the exterior bridge were milled from 3/8” aluminum, at a panel size of 6’ x 18’. Panels of this scale provide a unique challenge. Zahner both coordinated with the structural team to ensure that the plate attachment system was properly detailed out in order to take on such heavy loads (the panels weigh around 500 pounds each).

Zahner milled the complete text from the Rules of Basketball, cutting stenciled text into each of the panels. The panels are backlit at night by LED lights that were installed by the lighting designer. During the day, the Angel Hair finish applied to the panels disperses sunlight and softens the natural reflectivity of the aluminum.

The Allen Fieldhouse (left) is connected to the DeBruce Center via an aluminum clad pedestrian bridge.

Milling and Etching Interior Metal Wall Panels to Tell a Story.

The interior bridge continues the exterior bridge’s aesthetic of text milled out from Angel Hair aluminum, and also adds an additional silkscreened visual element. Rather than the rules of basketball, the milled aluminum panels on the east wall contain quotes from both Naismith and Phog Allen. Because these panels are interior and don’t have windloads to contend with, the designers were able to go with a thinner sheet, at 3/16” x 5’ x 10’ each.

The adjacent west wall contains direct screenprinted text on aluminum. This text utilizes a similar visual trope to ZIRA in that it uses letterforms to map out the image of Naismith and Phog Allen, drawing yet another visual parallel between these founding fathers and the legacy of basketball at KU.

Interior Aluminum Plate Guardrails and Staircase Ramps

Zahner also completed a series of interior guardrails from 5/8” aluminum, in an Angel Hair finish to match the surrounding walls. These were made from solid plates connected only at the floor level, stairs, and ramp.

To achieve a uniform planar surface with minimal fasteners, custom connections were developed by Zahner engineers to create the massive guardrails which wind up and down the interior of DeBruce Center.

Using ImageWall to generate Perforated Imagery on Metal

The final piece of Zahner’s scope on DeBruce Center was a custom ZIRA perforated image of wheat, comprising around 7,250 square feet of space. At 243 total 3’ x 10’ 16ga panels, this was our largest scope item and required coordination with multiple trades, such as existing site and new steel. The engineers and fabricators at Zahner provided a system for drop and lock attachment that allowed for a smooth installation.

The perforations cross between panels, allowing imagery to continue seamlessly across the wall, without the distraction of edges. This was achieved by examining the pattern’s parametric relationship of visual elements to the larger surface. The resulting image emulates a field of wheat, hearkening back to symbols of Kansas, and the history of KU.

Capitol Federal Hall

September 16, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Education Lawrence--Kansas Gastinger Walker Harden, Gensler Brown L 2016 /by cmorris

Capitol Federal Hall Building at the University of Kansas

Capitol Federal Hall is a new building on the University of Kansas (KU) campus designed by Gensler, with custom architecture features made by Zahner. The building boasts four stories and an extra 166,500 square feet of space for students. It is the largest privately funded building on KU’s campus.

The building features various exterior and interior metalwork, design-engineered and manufactured by Zahner. The project was completed in 2015. Zahner worked with architects Gensler and Gastinger Walker, under the construction management of JE Dunn.

Zahner manufactured a variety of the project’s interior metalwork, including the awards wall, interior wall panels and the perforated metal for its feature staircase. This includes all of the stringer adornment, soffits, fascia, balusters and guardrails. Exterior metalwork includes the metal balconies, wall panels, and exterior outcroppings. Both the interior and exterior are clad in Solanum Steel, a rustic patina developed on weathering steel.

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Capitol Federal Hall

Interior Perforated Guardrail System

Capitol Federal Hall uses Solanum Steel for the exterior cladding, as well as perforating some of the guardrail panels. Zahner treated all interior panels with a matte sealant that maintained the surface quality of the steel, while preventing the patina from rubbing off onto people’s hands or clothing. Perforations were completed on the raw steel, then weathered afterwards to prevent any damage during the perforating process. Adding the finish post-fabrication also ensured that the inside of the holes maintained the same finish as the front of the panels.

Because the panels could be viewed on both sides, it was necessary to treat both the front and back with the Solanum finish. To accommodate for this, as well as the voids left from the holes, a thicker plate material was used.

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Guardrail Systems

Custom guardrail systems are a critical component of providing a design which is both safe and friendly for unique architectural environments. Zahner works with designers to provide bespoke handrail and guardrail systems for their projects.