Silver | Zahner

Zahner Headquarters

The North Dock Expansion at the Zahner Campus

Designed by Crawford Architects, the Zahner Headquarters façade features undulating ZEPPS assemblies. ZEPPS, the Zahner process used to create custom curving surfaces, are used in projects around the world. Typically, ZEPPS assemblies consist of structural aluminum fins and ribs which are then clad in stainless steel, zinc, or any other building skin material.

The design of the Zahner Headquarters, however, was inspired from examining the ZEPPS understructure; the assemblies were intentionally left exposed, revealing the beauty of the engineering behind what is usually covered over. Zahner engineered and produced the exterior façade, naming it ‘Cloud Wall,’ and subsequently developed an app for designers to easily create similar custom façade iterations online.

The billowing curtain wall features glass inset between each fin. Part of the Inverted Seam system, Zahner developed a patented Drop & Lock method for engineering and installing panelized dry-set glass. Installation is quick and easy via male and female connections.

With a nearly 40-foot high ceiling 10,000-square feet of added space, the expansion allows Union Sheet Metal Workers to easily fabricate large-scale ZEPPS and other assemblies.

A crane is used to hoist each panel into place.

Zahner Installers install the glass panels.

Zahner Headquarters viewed from the North.

Zahner Headquarters viewed from the East.

Photograph of the Cloud Wall during construction.

Zahner employees have a safety lunch in the shop prior to the Cloudwall Installation.

Photograph of the shop interior during the production of MIC.

Learn more about the Zahner Headquarters Expansion

Green Building & Design Magazine Crawford Architects June 2012.
Architect Magazine Zahner Cloud Wall September 2011.
Archdaily Zahner Factory Expansion September 2011.
Zahner Product: GlassFin™ Curtainwall
Zahner Product: Drop & Lock™ Metal Panel Systems

Wyly Theater

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture LEED, Performance Center Dallas--Texas Kendall Heaton Associates, OMA, REX Architecture Silver L 2008 /by cmorris

Dee & Charles Wyly Theatre

Situated in the arts district of downtown Dallas, the critically acclaimed Wyly Theatre was designed by REX Architecture and Rem Koolhaas OMA. Heralded as one of the most intelligently conceived performance centers in the world, the Wyly is designed to accommodate traditional and experimental performances of music, dance, and cinema in a uniquely rigged space that rapidly transforms to meet various performance requirements.

Such a unique interior space called for a similarly unique exterior. Zahner provided the design, engineering, fabrication, and installation of the extruded anodized aluminum facade.

Related Project

Winspear Opera House

Zahner produced the canopy which covers the Winspear as well as the Strauss Square and Sammons Park. These two venues offer outdoor performances and projected shows.

Detail of the perforated aluminum lighting system for Wyly Theatre.

Wyly Theatre by REX Architecture & Rem Koolhaus OMA

Designing the Facade for Wyly Theatre

The architects contracted Zahner in a Design Assist process to develop a solution for the building façade. The process enables both the design and fabrication teams to solidify a clear design concept, increasing efficiencies before moving to the fabrication phase.

The concept for the Wyly façade began with an idea that, through design iteration and charrette, culminated in taking the idea one step further. The result is an extruded aluminum façade that emulates the billowing fabric of a closed curtain. Perforations in key areas allow for elegant lighting of the building’s signage.

As part of the Design Assist process, a mockup is produced to further aid in downstream planning. The mockup serves a critical function in each project, often revealing previously unknown insights and methodologies for efficient fabrication and installation.

Winspear Opera House

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Performance Center Dallas--Texas Foster & Partners, Kendall Heaton Associates Grey, Red, Silver L 2009 /by cmorris

Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House

The Winspear Opera House is one of five venues comprising the new Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. Zahner worked on several of them. Zahner was also responsible for the Wyly Theatre, directly across the street from the Winspear Opera House.

Zahner produced the canopy which covers the Winspear as well as the Strauss Square and Sammons Park. These two venues offer outdoor performances and projected shows.

Designing the Canopy

Zahner worked closely with the architect to develop a high-quality engineered surface that is easily installed and provides long-term performance. The Winspear Opera House canopy was designed as a solar shade by the architects at Foster.

Photograph of the Winspear Opera House at night in Dallas, Texas

The angles of the massive fins were determined by following the path of the sun. The design intent was to eliminate most of the direct sunlight on the Winspear Opera House and surrounding park, while increasing the ambient light underneath the canopy. Foster’s design creates a cooler microclimate around the building, and the canopy significantly reduces the energy requirements of the Winspear Opera House.

Winspear Opera House and Strauss Square outdoor performance space.

The Arts in all their many exciting forms are a bridge between people – Annette Strauss.

Detail of the Winspear Opera House aluminum canopy

Detail of the Winspear Opera House Canopy

The high-craft aluminum canopy has aircraft-grade connections and is engineered and fabricated with the highest design standards. The photographs show above show the artful design layout of the fins integrating into the canopy framework.

Interior Metalwork

In addition to producing the canopy which shades the entire campus of the Winspear, Zahner also engineered and fabricated the entrance desks in the theater’s lobby and atrium. These desks are produced using half-inch thick anodized aluminum.

Zahner fabricated three desks for the interior atrium, which serve as ticketing booths and winebars. Each of the desks feature high-quality connections that are completely hidden from plane view. The design is a slight curve which matches the general curvature of the interior layout.

The Winspear Opera House is adjacent to the Wyly Theatre in Dallas whose exterior surface was also engineered and produced by Zahner.

Winds of Aphrodite

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Parking Structure, Transportation Kansas City Crawford Architects Suikang Zhao Grey, Silver L 2008 /by cmorris

Bartle Hall Convention Center Loading Dock Remodel

Working with artist Suikang Zhao, Crawford Architects led a redesign of the Bartle Hall Loading Dock to provide both a face-lift and a functionality-lift. The new design features an expanded aluminum screen wall developed by Zahner, offering a uniquely artistic first-impression of downtown Kansas City. The project aluminum screen skin connects to a galvanized steel superstructure, and as night falls, thousands of computer-color-controlled LEDS light up the mesh screen.

Working collaboratively with Crawford Architects, I designed art that is integrated into architect and the north and west facade of the screen-covered loading dock. The basic design idea is about soften monolithic monstrous design of 70’s into tangible / feminine touch as if a piece of giant fabric flying from sky and happen to catch up the corner of the Convention Center. Layers of steel meshes creates changing moment of mystical appearance depending on weather and time of day, and is lit up by computer-color-controlled LED light in the evening.

Completed in 2008, the project required the transformation of a 70’s brutalist structure into a softened and tangible work, as if it were a giant strip of fabric flying from the sky which happened to catch the corners of the convention center. Because of the way that downtown Kansas City highways are organized, when visitors first exited the highway, they would see the Bartle Hall Convention Center’s loading docks, replete with overflowing dumpsters and big trucks unloading for the upcoming show.

Dusk photograph of the Winds of Aphrodite artwork on Bartle Hall Loading Dock.

Moire patterns on the expanded aluminum facade and artwork at Bartle Hall

Light filters through the Winds of Aphrodite's aluminum surface on Bartle Hall Loading Dock.

The formed expanded aluminum surface allows light to filter into the Bartle Hall Loading Dock.

The corner of the Bartle Hall Loading Dock renovation.

The other part of the problem was that it was hard for the large trucks to enter the space because the original space wasn’t well thought-out. Architects at Crawford re-designed the framework and brought in Chinese artist Suikang Zhao to bring a flowing perforated aluminum screen, produced, fabricated, and installed by Zahner. Zahner was also integral in the Design Assist Process, where the artists, architects and Zahner engineering directors and designers work to maximize and refine the end design.

Drawing of the semi-truck pathways taken at Bartle Hall's loading dock.

The result of all this preparation is a new Bartle Hall Convention Center that works. The triangular screens appear as sails flowing in the wind, allowing light to enter and disguising the view of the docks. The previously underused loading docks are now used by every big truck that unloads at Bartle Hall.

The architects’ redesign of the Bartle Hall Loading Dock included looking at the paths that a truck takes, making it more efficient for semi-trucks to pull in, unload, and depart from the loading bay.

Winds of Aphrodite by Suikang Zhao and Crawford Architects.

Entrance to the Bartle Hall Loading Dock in Kansas City.

Zahner installers during the renovation of the Bartle Hall Loading Dock.

Winner: 2008 Kansas City Capstone Award

Winged Refuge

August 15, 2016/in Art & Sculpture Government, Memorial, Sculpture Colorado Springs--Colorado John Lajba Silver M, S 2011 /by cmorris

Winged Refuge at the Colorado Springs Air Force Academy

Artist John Lajba came to Zahner with a machined cast-bronze model in-hand, which was used to accurately define the art fabrication of the commissioned monument to the United States Air Force.

Winged Refuge was manufactured using a semi-mirror stainless steel surface. The connection edges include both TIG-welded corners, as well as broken edges with Radius Reduction for the sharpest possible corner and edge connections. The two sculptures were fabricated in the Zahner shop, wrapped in blue-plastic netto, and shipped to the job site where each sculpture bolted into a raised stone section. The stone and concrete contractors then completed the rest of the ground surface.

Related System

Radius Reduction Mitered Corner Metal Panel Designs

Radius Reduction™ provides a distinct alternative to traditional brake-formed metal panels, resulting in a crisp, origami-like metal edge on architectural applications.

Winged Refuge Sculpture at the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, by artist John Lajba.

Photograph of John Lajba with his Winged Refuge Sculpture Model.

White Chapel

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Education, Worship Center Terre Haute--Indiana VOA Associates Silver L, M 2001 /by cmorris

The John R. and Elizabeth L. White Chapel at Rose-Hulman

Designed by VOA Associates, White Chapel is a non-denominational place of prayer serving the campus community at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The project was made possible from a generous gift from John White, a Rose-Hulman graduate and local Terre Haute businessman.

Designing the Rose-Hulman Chapel Building Envelope

Zahner was responsible to the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for the production and installation of the total building envelope. Zahner designed, fabricated, and installed the custom tapered roof and glazing system.

The entire surface was modeled using 3D CAD Technologies to produce custom components that would fit into the building’s unique conical shape. The surface is a No. 4 Satin Finish on Stainless Steel, panelized as a custom flat seam rain screen.

Diamond-shaped stainless steel panels clad the exterior of the nave shell. The shell is split by a series of vertical ribbon windows and a continuous ridge skylight. The entire east end of the nave is glazed, allowing the campus to act as a backdrop for activities taking place within the chapel.

Interior photograph of the chapel at Rose-Hulman.

Photograph of White Chapel at dusk on the Rose-Hulman campus.

Aerial photograph of White Chapel at the Rose-Hulman Institute Campus.

Students dive in the lake in front of the chapel at Rose-Hulman.

Detail of the stainless steel panel system on the Rose-Hulman campus White Chapel.

Sunset at White Chapel at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Dusk at the White Chapel at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Photograph of White Chapel roof at dusk on the Rose-Hulman campus

The shape of the chapel required an engineered design innovation. VOA architect Kevin Curran chose a diamond-shaped stainless steel shingle for the building’s exterior that could hold its smooth form in heavy rain, snow or 92 degree heat. The shingle’s interlocking joints allow each to slip against one another. The skin flexes as the chapel’s surface heats up or cools down. This curtain wall material was tested extensively to ensure it would hold up to all Indiana weather conditions.

Today, the uniquely modern non-denominational chapel continues to serve Rose-Hulman students and campus organizations as a place of spiritual refuge. It has also become a destination for the larger Terre Haute community. White Chapel stands as an example of how culture, beauty and community-building are achievable through close collaboration and understanding between an architect and institution.

Weatherhead School

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Education Cleveland--Ohio Frank Gehry Partners Silver L 2002 /by cmorris

Peter B. Lewis Building at the Weatherhead School of Management

Designed by Gehry Partners, the Peter B. Lewis Building is a five-storey facility named for the Cleveland philanthropist who donated $36.9 million for its construction. The decentralized design is intended to facilitate informal interaction among faculty and students.

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.

Using the Zahner proprietary flat seam system, each shingle was custom formed to create an interlocking, tessellated pattern.

Aerial view of Weatherhead School of Management

Curvilinear forms of the Peter B. Lewis Building.

The stainless steel surface ripples reflections of the clouds.

Detail of the Weatherhead School of Management Peter B. Lewis Building

Reflective metal on the Peter B. Lewis Building

Detail of the Weatherhead School's metal patterned roof

Learn more about the Weatherhead School

The Weatherhead School, completed in 2002, is a private business school at Case Western Reserve University located in Cleveland, Ohio.

In 2012, a new building for the Museum of Contemporary Art at Cleveland was designed and built on an adjacent site to the Peter B. Lewis Building at Weatherhead School. Designed by Farshid Moussavi Architects, the building’s facade was fabricated by Zahner.

Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas

Designed by YWS Architects of Las Vegas, Nevada, Zahner provided the engineering and fabrication of two large winged stainless steel elements at the northeast side entry of the casino. These ‘wings’ are constructed of steel tubing and aluminum ZEPPS Components, and were clad with an aluminum sheet sub-surface and then finished with stainless steel skins.

Each of the wings were finished with a different alloy of stainless steel, to create a color distinction between the two. The east wing was finished using a brushed stainless steel surface. The west wing with PVD coated stainless steel panels for a copper hue.

The project uses Ti-Stainless or PVD Coated Stainless, a high-performance surface that can be used to achieve gold, copper, bronze, and brass tones in stainless steel. The material is now available to the architectural community, and has a longer lifespan than similar metals such as anodized aluminum.

Related Surface

Treasure Island

Building the Treasure Island Winged Entrance

The project was an early use of the ZEPPS Process for building complex curvilinear forms. Each of the forms was defined digitally and manufactured at Zahner in Kansas City. The forms were each clad using flat-seam panels.

ZEPPS™ Panel understructure for Treasure Island wings.

View of Treasure Island's pipe understructure.

The Treasure Island panels arrive at the job site in Las Vegas.

View of Treasure Island after Aluminum sub-surface has been secured.

The panels are packed onto delivery trucks to ship to Las Vegas.

Treasure Island in CAD, showing the square pipe understructure.

The ZEPPS™ Panels are installed on the Treasure Island entrance.

View of Treasure Island after substantial completion.

Each wing is approximately 32′ tall. The units were constructed in Kansas City and transported to Las Vegas for erection. Zahner has produced multiple structures and surfaces in Las Vegas.

How the Architectural Cone was Manufactured

Zahner has manufactured a number of works of architecture featuring cone-shaped elements. The conical design of the Museum of Glass project was manufactured using ZEPPS, a Zahner system for developing complex structures. ZEPPS provides a way to build not only euclidian shapes such as these, but also a method for making non-euclidian geometries.

For Museum of Glass, the architect’s design modeled digitally, and broken down using ZEPPS into layers and sections. This includes both the sheet metal cladding for the exterior rainscreen, as well as larger semi-rectangular assemblies with pre-attached waterproofing membrane.

Next, both the larger ZEPPS assemblies as well as the smaller stainless steel shingles were manufactured at Zahner in Kansas City. These parts were delivered to the Tacoma jobsite. The large ZEPPS assemblies provide the smooth curvature of the surface, and tie into the linear structural steel forms using cold-connections. Then the stainless steel skin is clad across the smooth surface of the cone.