Exterior Architecture

Dolby Labs HQ

January 27, 2017/in Exterior Architecture Corporate, Flagship San Francisco Bay WRNS Studio Silver M 2018 /by cmorris

WRNS Studio designed the screening room and lobby at the Dolby Labs Headquarters in San Francisco. The 14,000 sq. ft. screening room was built to highlight the latest in sound-based cinematic technology. The exterior design of the building hints at what movie-goers will experience once inside.

Zahner engineered and fabricated louvered perforated panels in stainless steel with a GB-60™ bead blasted finish. Panels at street level continue the overall aesthetic with a dimpled surface and an Angel Hair® finish.

Sunlight activates the louvered perforated facade on the Dolby Labs Headquarters in San Francisco, California.

Design Assist helps achieve design intent

Through the Design Assist process, WRNS and Zahner collaborated to develop a stainless steel facade with custom reticulated louvers. Each louver was laser cut and bent at specific angles, achievable through the Zahner patented process known as Louvered ZIRA™.

The perforated apertures vary in size, flowing from large to small, top to bottom, creating a gradient effect. The end result is a facade that bends and directs light to converge in a single point. The intent is to mimic the Dolby precision sound-as-object technology, which allows sounds to emanate from anywhere in the theatre.

In this way, the Dolby brand experience begins before patrons enter the building. The louvered panels flow from the exterior façade into the upper half of the interior lobby, harmoniously connecting the two spaces.

Interior lobby under construction. Exterior facade design flows into the lobby.

About Louvered ZIRA

Louvered ZIRA system uses a United States registered patent owned by Zahner. The system works by three-dimensionalizing perforations using tabbed or folded perforation. Any laser-cut or milled shape can be formed into a micro louver on the surface of the metal. The machine cuts partial perforations with folded tabs, and opens the tab by folding the tab back.

Custom dimpled panels extend the aesthetic established by the louvered perforated panels.

Additional panels complete the street level facade with a dimpled surface that echoes the overall design. Integrated lighting adds another layer of intrigue to the building’s aesthetic after dark.

Louvered perforated panels catch and direct sunlight.

Museum Garage

January 19, 2017/in Exterior Architecture Parking Structure Miami--Florida Clavel Arquitectos, J. Mayer H. un Partner-- Architekten, K/R Architect-- PC, Nicolas Buffe, WORKac Black, Magenta, Rose L 2018 /by cmorris

The Museum Garage is a seven-story mixed-use retail and parking structure located in Dacra’s Miami Design District. Featuring five dramatically different architectural facades and a painted mural, the project celebrates diverse creativity in keeping with the development’s emphasis on innovative experiences in shopping and dining.

Terence Riley of K/R curated the project’s unique aesthetics recruiting designers from WORKac, J.MAYER.H, Clavel Arquitectos, Nicolas Buffe and K/R (Keenen/Riley). Each of these designers approached their part of the structure with a wholly unique vision, custom engineered and fabricated by Zahner.

Complex Projects Begin with Design Assist

Each facade began with the Zahner Assist solution, a methodology of working collaboratively with design teams to bring each unique vision to reality. This unique Design Assist process involves deep critical thinking of all project aspects, assuring constructability, safety, and aesthetic requirements are met. This step is crucial in discovering and solving issues that could arise in the shop and field, reducing the number of change orders and remaining within a project’s budgetary parameters.

WORKac : More Than a Facade

New York–based WORKac designed the east facade, which wraps the corner onto the north elevation. Meandering walkways are concealed and revealed through precisely placed perforated aluminum panels, themselves creating shapes from the resulting negative space. Each panel is painted white on the exterior and a vibrant pink on the interior. The concrete substructure, painted in the same pink hue, becomes part of the overall design. The intent is to reveal glimpses of the activities taking place behind the screens, including a DJ booth and street art space among others.

The project presented several design challenges, which Zahner and the WORKac team solved during the Zahner Assist process:

Complex geometry around the various radii and at the ground tier
Anchorage solutions for the complex structure
Solving for non-continuous mullions
Two color, double-sided painting on perforated aluminum

Related Surface

Museum Garage

Related System

Museum Garage

WORKac exterior facade painted aluminum detail.

WORKac interior pink painted aluminum detail.

J. Mayer H. : XOX

The Berlin-based practice of J. Mayer H. created XOX, a facade that translates the voids created in the WORKac elevation into volumetric, puzzle-like shapes fabricated in aluminum with Zahner engineered structural forms. These shapes are painted with stripes of black, blue, and red patterns similar to those found in the far north facade designed by K/R. According to the K/R website, the collaborative nature of designing a facade alongside other creatives is “an exciting innovative design strategy to explore collaboration, adjacencies, and cross-referencing.” This portion of the project features embedded lighting on the perforated elements, imbuing the structure with an otherworldly glow.

During the Zahner Assist process, Zahner’s ZEPPS technology and Drop and Lock systems were combined to achieve the project’s aesthetic. The development of the system enabled pre-skinning of all elements which allowed for shop-level control of the curved, multi-colored painted artwork.

Related System

Museum Garage

Related System

Museum Garage

Nicolas Buffe : Serious Play

Nicolas Buffe, a French artist based in Tokyo, designed Serious Play. The facade references Buffe’s studio practice, which is based on a
multi-faceted interpretation of erudite and popular culture. The
juxtaposition of classical and contemporary cultural references draw
upon the humanist notion of Serio Ludere, meaning ‘to play seriously,’ hence the work’s title.

Zahner fabricated the cartoon, baroque inspired images. Each section is cut from black and white layered HDPE and milled to reveal the artist’s signature drawing style. The shapes are attached in varying standoff dimensions, achieving the artist’s intent of visual depth.

Through the Zahner Assist process, Zahner developed two custom systems that achieved the artist’s intent of visual depth. These standoff systems were integrated with the Drop & Lock panel system that acts as a white canvas for Buffe’s drawings. Many of the artwork elements have pre-attached luminaires behind them. Zahner solved for this by coordinating CNC cut paths on the reverse of the art pieces.

Related System

Lighting

Zahner works with designers to develop custom lighting systems which integrate into a built facade or architectural detail.

Related System

Museum Garage

Overall view of Serious Play, a painted aluminum and milled black & white HDPE facade. by Nicolas Buffe.

Detail of Serious Play by Nicolas Buffe.

Clavel Arquitectos: Urban Jam

Clavel Arquitectos, based in Murcia and Miami, drew inspiration from the area’s urban growth with their facade, Urban Jam. The design features 36 car shells painted in silver and gold. The car shells were fabricated by Entech Innovative and engineered to attach securely to the facade by Zahner.

Mock-up of Urban Jam by Clavel Arquitectos at Zahner Headquarters.

Keenan Riley (K/R) : Barricades

Keenan Riley (K/R) designed Barricades, a facade inspired by parking barricade stripes. The orange and white striped triangular extrusions, some perforated and illuminated, are disrupted by varying sizes of protruding painted concrete planter boxes. Each planter box is surrounded by a mirror polished, stainless steel “picture frame”.

Through the Zahner Assist process, the sloping slab of the parking structure was resolved with the rectilinear facade design through a secondary steel system that spans horizontally between concrete columns. This allowed the triangle extrusions to be shop-assembled, with mating head and sill extrusions, into units optimized for shipping and installation.

K/R's Barricades facade features painted aluminum extrusions.

Detail of Barricades by K/R. Painted aluminum extrusions engineered and fabricated by Zahner.

Related Surface

Museum Garage

Related System

Museum Garage

Nicolas Buffe milled black & white HOPE aluminum.

Block 21 Hotel

January 16, 2017/in Exterior Architecture, Landscape Architecture Highrise, Hospitality, LEED Austin--Texas Andersson-Wise Architects Brown M 2014 /by cmorris

Block 21 W Hotel and Residences

The W Hotel and Residences complex is a new centerpiece for the city, occupying a prime location in the skyline framing Austin City Hall and Lady Bird Lake. The design by Andersson-Wise Architects includes a covered entry clad in Solanum Steel, a preweathered steel manufactured by Zahner.

The multi-use project includes Austin City Limits Live at Moody Theater, a 2700-person-capacity live music venue and recording studio for the venerable PBS television production. The complex has truly activated this part of downtown Austin while adding a new dimension to the city’s musical culture.

Conceived to set a higher standard for environmentally engaged design in Austin, the development has received Silver LEED certification and will be the largest building in the Central Texas region with this certification, and the only one that is mixed-use.

Block 21 Hotel and Residences in Austin, Texas.

A restrained presence is a key component of the entire complex. Massing and scale make a strong connection to the neighboring buildings, especially to City Hall, which is immediately to the south. At the street level, open air spaces invite gathering and access from Austin’s Second Street District, a growing urban neighborhood.

A landscaped public plaza on the southeast corner opens to cooling breezes off Lady Bird Lake and bridges to the W’s outdoor bar and restaurant, Trace. An adjoining open loggia provides a shaded passage from Lavaca Street to the hotel entrance.

Scratches to metal surface will self-heal as part of the Solanum Steel alloy's weathering properties.

Wichita Riverfront

January 6, 2017/in Exterior Architecture, Landscape Architecture Bridge, Pedestrian Bridge, Transportation Wichita--Kansas HNTB Brown M 2005 /by cmorris

Keeper of the Plains Pedestrian Bridge in Wichita Kansas

For the city’s riverfront revitalization, Zahner worked under HNTB to provide the pedestrian bridge in Wichita, Kansas. Zahner’s scope included primarily the metal panel systems used at the base of the bridge, for which the team provided both fabrication and installation.

The pedestrian bridge is divided into two spans, which each meet at the rivers’ confluence. Zahner provided the metal panel system using raw copper, which means that a dark patina will quickly form on the surface. Over the years, this patina will weather and eventually take on an overall green appearance.

Related Project

Douglas Avenue Bridge

Designed in collaboration with Mark Spitzer Designs, the artworks are each made up of a number of stainless steel tower forms with lighting systems. The forms were inspired by Wichita’s aeronautical heritage and the Jayhawk sail boat, an America’s Cup competitor that is permanently installed adjacent to the bridge at the city’s historic boathouse. The towers allude to the ship’s bow and billowing sail, creating a ceremonial space for pedestrians crossing the bridge, and a beautiful site for the city’s river festival.

Keeper of the Plains Bridge in Wichita, Kansas.

Irving Courtyard

January 5, 2017/in Exterior Architecture, Landscape Architecture Education, Passive Security Kansas City Gastinger Walker Harden Brown, Orange L 2006 /by cmorris

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.

Related Project

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.

New Castle County Library

January 4, 2017/in Exterior Architecture Library New Castle--Delaware Studio Hillier Brown, Green M 2001 /by cmorris

Brandywine Hundred Library in New Castle County

The Brandywine Hundred Library in New Castle is designed by Studio Hillier and features a Zahner manufactured colonnade with a custom copper patina. The building’s forms recall a historic aesthetic, while its large windows emphasize its natural setting.

Strongly rooted in the landscape and history of the Brandywine Valley, the new 40,000 gross square foot library serves as a 21st century meeting house, expressing and enhancing modern interconnectivity.

The project includes a custom patinated copper canopy which was fabricated by Zahner for the building’s entry soffit. 290 sheets of copper were processed to develop a unique and rustic patina across its surface. This is an early architectural example of custom preweathered patina on copper.

Related Surface

New Castle County Library

Detail of Brandywine Hundred Library in New Castle County

At the end of the colonnade, an outdoor amphitheater creates the library’s storytelling center. The building is composed of two parts—the smaller encompassing the community center, the larger housing the library’s 100,000 volumes, including a reading area with fireplace. The building is fully wired for computers, accommodates 350, and features a 50-seat café and 200-car secure parking lot.

Related Project

Irving Convention Center

The project features a Zahner-engineered and produced copper curtain-wall. The entire surface of the project is custom perforated and bumped with a pattern unique to the building. The surface integrates the ZIRA Process for generating the embossed and punched surface.

Prepatinated copper canopy caps the colonnade for Brandywine Hundred Library

Prepatinated copper skins for Brandywine Hundred Library in the Zahner shop

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.

Livermore Outlets

January 4, 2017/in Art & Sculpture, Exterior Architecture Retail & Commerce San Francisco Bay FCGA Architecture Brown, Gold S 2015 /by cmorris

ImageWall system, for San Francisco Premium Outlets®

In 2015, Zahner provided the San Francisco Premium Outlets with a perforated metal artwall, installed in an outdoor area of the public mall development. Gates + Associates provided the landscape design for the entire development’s expansion, adding 185,000 SF to the project. This addition makes the project the largest outlet mall in the state of California.

Gates + Associates worked with Zahner’s ImageWall team to develop the artwall, which was shipped and installed by the architect’s contractor. The design is rolling landscape which depicts the surrounding area’s vineyards. Manufactured in Dirty Penny copper, the patina will continue to weather and grow in its depth over time. Since the copper patina is exposed to the outdoors, the oxidization will eventually turn dark brown, and then after a few decades, will become green.

The San Francisco Premium Outlets is Located in Livermore, California, the campus is part of the greater San Francisco region, and is located amongst some of California’s oldest vineyards. The development is state’s largest outdoor outlet shopping mall, and includes high end brand stores atypical of outlet malls, including Prada, Gucci, and Coach. The addition brought a number of new arrivals, including Versace, Jimmy Choo, Tory Burch, Rag & Bone, and Dsquared.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.