Silver | Zahner

Nissan Styling Studio

Nissan Styling Studio and Technology Center

Nissan Design America commissioned Luce et Studio to design an elegant courtyard for the Nissan Design Group, where the company’s design team could privately showcase its new technologies and concept cars. Zahner worked with partners Wallace Engineering and Turner Construction to produce the courtyard for the campus.

Completed in 2005, the Nissan Styling Studio features a double layered perforated metal skin which has an offset spiral, 30 feet into the sky. The perforated screen allows light to enter while preventing viewers from peering in from the outside. This was a key aspect of the design, because the courtyard was used to display concept cars that weren’t yet available to the public. The oval shaped space at the Farmington Hills Facility is known as ‘The Egg,’ an exterior courtyard where final prototypes could be viewed in natural daylight.

Nissan Styling Studio and Technology Center.

Nissan Studio, generating a unique architectural moire at Dusk.

Photograph of the Nissan Egg during a heavy snow.

Interior metalwork for the Nissan Design Studio in Michigan.

Developing the Moiré Design as an Architectural Feature

As part of the project’s design development, Zahner produced a mockup for the architects at Luce et Studio. The mockup was manufactured and displayed at the Zahner HQ in Kansas City.

Nissan Styling Studio mockup at Zahner Headquarters in Kansas City.

Neiman Marcus

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Retail & Commerce Natick--Massachusetts Elkus Manfredi Charcoal, Gold, Orange, Silver L 2007 /by cmorris

Neiman Marcus Flagship Store by Elkus Manfredi

The Neiman Marcus in Natick, Massachusetts is the store’s Flagship property featuring a billowing facade designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects in Boston. The entire surface of the building is wrapped in a stainless steel curtain, a feature which flows throughout and into the building in the same style.

Elkus Manfredi Architects designed the facade’s undulations with perspective in mind. When travelers drive by, the structure appears animated and kinetic, an effect caused by the way the facade curves in and out. Zahner worked with the architects to design a curving facade panel system that is both aesthetically powerful as well as economically effective.

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Neiman Marcus

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Neiman Marcus

The skin is actually three different tones of colored stainless steel. Two of these tones were formed by a electro-chemical process which permanently changes the tone of stainless steel. Zahner has used this process for several other projects, including the Contemporary Jewish Museum which has a dark blue interference coating and a cross-fire brushed pattern. Interference stainless steel was also used on the The EMP Museum, The Meyer Fletcher Residence, and the Royals Crown at Kauffman Stadium.

In addition to providing the exterior scope, Zahner also manufactured interior metalwork for the department store interior entrance. This interior wall uses a similar subtle curvature made in a lightweight ZEPPS framework. This scope included the ceiling area, made in a stainless steel with standard polish.

The exterior scope included various metal details, including the soffit at the Neiman Marcus entrance and the throughout areas underneath the facade’s curtain. Providing these standard details for the facade and other areas is typical of Zahner scope. The company routinely handles interior and exterior standard metalwork on a variety of projects.

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Soffit Systems

Soffit systems engineered and manufactured by Zahner are the result of innovative architects, designers, and artists who challenged the norms of what to expect in the built environment. Working with Zahner to develop a custom metal soffit system begins with your design.

Designing the complex curtain system for the Neiman Marcus facade was made possible through Design Assist. Zahner worked with the architects at Elkus Manfredi to develop a design, mockup, and manufacturing process to efficiently fabricate, deliver, and install the exterior metal facade.

Building a dual-curved facade with pre-fabricated panels.

The building’s 570-foot-long undulating stainless steel façade, in tones of bronze, champagne and silver, “waves in and out and top to bottom almost as if someone was wearing a dress and walking,” said Elkus.

NASCAR Hall of Fame

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Museum Charlotte--North Carolina Pei Cobb Freed Silver L, XL 2010 /by cmorris

NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina

A twisting stainless steel ribbon races around the perimeter of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina. Zahner was brought into the project to build the structural form which wraps its facade. The building opened in May 2010, and it serves as a sprawling museum dedicated to racing and NASCAR history.

The building’s design was lead by architect Pei, Cobb, Freed. The firm envisioned a möbius strip-styled stainless steel roadway racing around the perimeter of the main building. The design of a möbius entails the concept of infinity, indicating a sort of infinite path for racing.

To create the building’s möbius required the design of a unique curvilinear shape. To produce this, Zahner engineers implemented the ZEPPS, the Zahner system for building unique architectural forms. Using ZEPPS enabled the architects to design and manufacture the building’s facade efficiently and within budget. It also enabled simple and straight-forward construction of an otherwise immensely complex shape.

The möbius is clad in Angel Hair stainless steel, a product developed by Zahner to reduce the glare and bright spots while providing a satin finish. Even in bright sunlight, the surface has significantly less glare than mill finishes on stainless steel.

Manufacturing the Unique Facade for NASCAR

The Museum went from design to completion in just over two years. The project’s expedient construction was due to good management by Turner BE&K, as well as a smooth design process.

The design and manufacture of the structural form of the stainless steel was provided by Zahner. Zahner engineers employed a Design Assist method to design the details of the ZEPPS forms.

These ZEPPS forms contain not only the shape and facade, but also electrical, lighting, insulation, and water-proofing. The intelligence of ZEPPS is twofold: you decrease the amount of rigid structural steel which doesn’t like to curve, and you automate aspects of the production of the aluminum forms. In the field, the construction crew receives numbered and pre-assembled parts.

The wall system that makes up the ribbon is constructed from aluminum panels that are approximately 8 foot in width. Wall heights vary with the tallest being in the region of 45 feet. By shipping these forms as preassembled units, the team was able to maximize efficiency in the shop, and maximize efficiency of installing the parts in the field.

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“Zahner held to our budget, schedule, safety, and quality standards… The ribbon will indeed be the feature remembered by all who visit the NASCAR Hall of Fame. I highly recommend A. Zahner Company for any project which demands the qualities referenced above.”

Tom BarnettConstruction Manager at BE&K Turner Construction.at

A step-by-step process employed by Zahner included the method of splicing plates into specific dimensions and then joined together. Each panel is individually numbered, so construction knows exactly what spliced plate goes between designated panels.

CAD View of the moebius structure Zahner designed compared with the installed view.

Hanging a single NASCAR Hall of Fame ZEPPS Panel.

Detail of the metalwork also provided on the doors for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

ZEPPS structure that Zahner designed and built for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Museum of Science and Industry

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Museum Tampa--Florida Antoine Predock Architect PC Blue, Silver L 1995 /by cmorris

The Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Florida

Completed in 1995, this spherical theater is the key organizing element of the entire facility. Zahner was involved in the design-engineering, fabrication, and installation of several interior and exterior elements within the complex, including the lush blue reflective dome itself. Antoine Predock, the architect who designed MOSI, began working with Zahner design engineers early in the schematic phase to develop a curvilinear system that would support the project.

MOSI was the first project Zahner produced by Antoine Predock, and the first project by Zahner to include dual curvatures. This marked a turning point in the way that Zahner produces its metal surfaces. Zahner had just completed the Weisman Museum with Frank Gehry, one of the earliest projects with Gehry and Zahner. The demands on the metal surface were many, but none of compared to what the Tampa dome would require.

Aerial imagery of Tampa Museum of Science and Industry.

Detail of the MOSI dual curvature roof panel system during installation.

Manufacturing the complex facade for MOSI

The Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa introduced new hurdles for the performance of sheet metal on curvilinear buildings. The dome of the spherical shape of the dome would require the metal surface to curve in two directions at once, which is the definition of dual curvatures. Similar to a sheet of paper, metal sheets do not want curve in both directions.

To overcome this obstacle, Zahner and Predock developed a triangulated panel system which would allow smooth dual-curving of the metal surface. This project was completed a few years before Zahner would go on to influence the Zahner ZEPPS technology. This system provides both the structure and the surface. However, this project was pre-ZEPPS, and as such, the project was accomplished using a more rudimentary aluminum substructure.

Roof of the MOSI Dome in Tampa — Dual Curvatures.

Detail of the MOSI dual curvature roof panel system.

Detailed drawings of the dual-curving MOSI facade were made.

Detail of the MOSI dual-curvature dome panel system in Tampa, Florida.

The mirror-polish stainless steel used for the project was chosen by the architects to evoke the sky and waters of Tampa Bay, less than twenty miles from the museum. The reflective finish creates unexpected lush colors reflected from both the green grounds surrounding the building, as well as the range of tones seen in the skies.

The mirror surface of the museum creates opportunities for luscious sunset tones across the surface of the metal, as seen above. In this case, the triangular panelization of the metal creates visual interest by dividing up the reflected planes, much like pillowed glass or the oil-canning of metal.

Zahner’s expertise was also required for a few other aspects of the museum, including the perforated drop ceiling systems, the aluminum peepholes in the south elevation, and the museum shop which is clad in a reflective stainless steel surface.

Murphysboro Sculpture

August 15, 2016/in Art & Sculpture Public Art, Sculpture Murphysboro--Illinois John Medwedeff Silver M 2010 /by cmorris

Carl Lee Park Pavilion and Bandshell in Murphysboro

The Carl Lee Park Pavilion and Bandshell is a sculptural form which features Zahner manufacturing and engineering technologies. Designed by artist John Medwedeff, this public art project is located at the town center of Murphysboro, Illinois. The project was completed in 2010, and measures 35′ long. The artwork provides a small amphitheater for the town’s public park where musicians perform outdoor concerts.

The project uses the same ZEPPS technology that Zahner developed on such buildings designed by Frank Gehry Partners and Randall Stout. These building designs required metal to curve and twist, all the while remaining highly accurate from edge to edge. Using ZEPPS, the patented technology for building unique forms, Zahner was able to design and manufacture the curvilinear framework for the Murphsyboro Bandshell.

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Murphysboro Sculpture

Murphysboro Town Park Pavilion and Bandshell by John Medwedeff

Fabricating Public Art using a Digital Model

The Design Assist Team modeled the project using the artist’s maquette as reference. Zahner scanned the artist’s model and developed an art fabrication plan for the sculpture. The model’s design details were further developed by Zahner engineers, dividing the model into several buildable subsections.

These subsections were then fabricated at the Zahner shop, and shipped to the job site. There the installers connected the frameworks, and secured the stainless steel skins to the aluminum substrate.

By using digital processes, Zahner was able to closely match the artist’s original model, and produce a large-scale version in aluminum substructure with stainless steel sheeting.

Zahner used an Angel Hair stainless steel surface for its cladding, which was secured to the ZEPPS framework during installation by Zahner field crew.

Digital model for the Town Park Pavilion and Bandshell by John Medwedeff

Zahner installation crew installs the fabricated ZEPPS components for the Medwedeff sculpture

The final artwork is an exacting fabrication of its digital model.

Lumenhaus

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Education Blacksburg--Virginia Virginia Tech Architecture Program Silver S 2011 /by cmorris

Herzog & de Meuron have developed a number of projects with Zahner including three major works. Based in Switzerland, Herzog & de Meuron is a partnership led by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron with Senior Partners Christine Binswanger, Ascan Mergenthaler and Stefan Marbach.

Architects come to Zahner for the company’s commitment to developing the designer’s aesthetic to completion. Zahner worked with Herzog & de Meuron to develop their design into custom architectural systems, featured below.

Lumenhaus Solar Pre-fab Housing Unit from Virginia Tech

Lumenhaus is an portable housing concept designed and built at Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design as part of its ongoing architectural research program. Inspired by the Farnsworth House by Mies Van Der Rohe, the north and south walls are all glass, maximizing the owner’s exposure to bright, natural daylight. The fully automated Eclipsis System, comprising independent sliding layers, permits a revolutionary design in a solar-powered house, while filtering light in beautiful, flowing patterns throughout the day.

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.

Dusk photograph of Lumenhaus, Virginia Tech.

Exterior detail of the Lumenhaus facade.

Creating the Lumenhaus Facade

Zahner worked with Virignia Tech to develop the facade system, providing the engineering and fabrication for the project as part of the patented ZIRA™ System for perforating facades with custom patterns and imagery. Instead of adjusting the size of the perforation to create the metal image pattern, Lumenhaus was designed to create unique imagery through changing the angle of the protruding tab. By louvering the perforation, the visual contrast is increased between the negative dark areas and the light-capturing tabbed areas.

This is the third solar house designed and built at Virginia Tech, but it is the first to win international recognition and press. In 2010, the project won the International Solar Decathlon Competition in Madrid, Spain. In January, 2012, it was announced that the Lumenhaus has won a 2012 AIA Honor Award for Architecture. This is the first time this award has been given to a university team.

Photograph of the Lumenhaus facade for Virginia Tech.

Photograph of the Lumenhaus facade at Dusk.

Interior photograph of the Lumenhaus showing the facade and eclipsis system video.

Rooted in the design principles of the Bauhaus, the project imbues 21st century technologies to create a dynamic living situation. The entire mechanics of the house are controllable via mobile phone, so the hand-held phone becomes a remote control for the many features of the house. This Eclipsis System includes a automatic sliding screen-wall engineered and manufactured by Zahner.

Where most energy-conscious houses are closed with strategic openings to resist heat transfer, Lumenhaus has open, flowing spaces linking occupants to each other within the house and to nature outside.

The design served as both aesthetic and function, a compelling surface that filters the harsh rays of the setting sun while letting in ambient light throughout the day.

Detail of the facade pattern for the Lumenhaus project.

Detail of the imaginative facade pattern for the Lumenhaus project.

Kowloon Station

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Airport, Transportation Asia, Hong Kong TFP Farrells Silver, White L, XL 1998 /by cmorris

Kowloon Station in Hong Kong

Kowloon Station is a rail transit station on the Tung Chung Line and the Airport Express of Hong Kong’s MTR. The station provides in-town check-in service for passengers departing from the Hong Kong International Airport, with access to shuttle, bus, train, and other forms of transit.

This station in the Kowloon development in Hong Kong was designed by Farrells (TPP Farrells). The project included a masterplan for the surrounding Union Square, one of the largest air-rights developments in the world. This development included the tallest tower in Hong Kong, the International Commerce Center.

Zahner was brought into the project to provide above-ground exterior metalwork, as well as below-grade metalwork for the station’s interior. This scope includes a Zahner-manufactured aluminum facade, with aluminum and stainless steel interior metalwork. The station was completed in 1998.

Interior metalwork at Kowloon Station, Hong Kong.

Interior painted metal systems, Kowloon Station, Hong Kong.

Related Project

Tsing Yi Station

Kauffman Center

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Performance Center Kansas City BNIM, Safdie Architects Silver L 2011 Homepage Featured /by cmorris

KAUFFMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is a project designed by Safdie Architects located in Kansas City. Zahner provided the stainless steel and substructure, which wraps the entirety of the facade and roof. This included the engineering, fabrication, and installation. Zahner also provided interior metalwork in key areas such as staircases and other architectural detailing on the building’s interior.

KAUFFMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS CLAD IN GB-60 STAINLESS STEEL.

Zahner worked closely with the design team to develop the surface systems. The entire roof and metal wall-surface is clad in GB-60 stainless steel. Zahner developed this product to provide a muted reflectivity and resilience to the elements.

The internationally recognized design team assembled includes Moshe Safdie & Associates, BNIM Architects, JeDunn Construction, Theatre Projects Consultants, and Nagata Acoustics. Their design incorporates the very latest in architectural innovation and technology to create virtually perfect acoustics and optimal sightlines in both performance halls.

KAUFFMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS CLAD IN GB-60 STAINLESS STEEL.

KAUFFMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS.

Related Project

Fisher Center

The performance center was completed in 2003, designed by Frank Gehry Partners. Zahner has been involved with Gehry's firm since the beginning, and has been involved in a number of featured Gehry projects over the years. The Bard College was finished a year after Weatherhead at Case Western, and a year prior to the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, Chicago. All three were built using Zahner engineering-design, fabrication, and installation.

The design provides a 285,000-square-foot hall with two performance venues: the 1,800-seat Muriel Kauffman Theatre and the 1,600-seat Helzberg Hall. The first stainless steel panels were installed at the Kauffman Center the week of August 2nd, 2010, and the project was inaugurated September 16th 2011.

KAUFFMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS.

Zahner installers set panels at Kauffman Center.

Installation of Kauffman Center interior metalwork by Zahner field operators.

Field operators install the ZEPPS™ Panels on the South roof of Kauffman Center.

A single ZEPPS panel for the roof system is hung at Kauffman Center.

Kauffman Center architectural paneling.

KAUFFMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS.

Issey Miyake Tribeca, in Titanium

Issey Miyake Tribeca is a retail store for the Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake designed by Gordon Kipping (G TECTS) with Frank Gehry in a historic cast-iron warehouse building. Located in in the Tribeca neighborhood of lower Manhattan, the store integrates a sculptural titanium ceiling and wall system designed by Frank Gehry Partners as a center piece, extending from a shaft emerging from the cellar floor into a turbulent swirl engulfing the ceiling of the ground floor retail space.
Zahner worked for Kipping and Gehry to produce undulating forms and structural support system for this high fashion store in New York City. Hand-formed and machine-formed Titanium panels were attached to the support system, a complex curving tubed branching form which runs throughout the store and can be seen in several detail shots below.

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Issey Miyake

Titanium is a notoriously difficult surface to work with. The material has incredible memory, which is why it’s been re-branded as a smart metal for high-end eye-glasses. In construction, the difficulty with it’s memory is that it wants to revert to a flat form. It also has a much harder huge tensile capacity, which enables it to take greater loads, but also makes it difficult to form.

For the Miyake project, Zahner engineered a flexible system which allowed the Architects to join the installers in New York. Custom-engineered machined stainless steel rotation points gave the metal sheet forms a large degree of leniency. Together the architects and installers manipulated the metal into their desired forms, referencing the fashion displayed on the store’s ground floor and lower level.

Interior surfaces of the Issey Miyake Store in Tribeca, New York City.

Curving titanium drop ceiling at Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Detail of the downstairs basement floor of Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Interior titanium surfaces at the Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Installation process at Issey Miyake Tribeca.

CAD layout for the steel pipe armatures which support the cascading titanium.

The above images show the Miyake Project during construction and the CAD rendering of the structural tubing which the entire sculpture is hooked into. The tubed system as well as the metal surface were developed collaboratively between the architects and the Design Assist Team at Zahner.

The images below are from Gordon Kipping, showing the architect with the artists and fashion designers involved in the project. Also shown are the initional sketches as well as the photographed result of Frank Gehry’s Tornado installation in the Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Video art capture of the designer, the architect, and the artist of the Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Frank Gehry Sketch of the Tornado design for the Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Selecting the Surface

The architect’s specifications originally called for a limestone exterior in additional to the stainless steel curving roof. Limestone would have cladded the vertical walls as well as many of the slanting angles throughout the building. As the project progressed, it became apparent that installing limestone was implausible in many areas due to the structural weight of the material.

At this point, Zahner was already contracted to produce the stainless steel roof. The architect asked Zahner to come up with some textured surfaces to match the limestone aesthetic.

Zahner had already been developing a wide range of custom patinas on many alloys of metal. The design team worked through several options, and decided to replace the limestone with a light gauge Hunter Zinc panels system. The preweathered zinc surface has a tonality which closely resembles the limestone surroundings. This material was used throughout the museum, on both the interior walls and the exterior building envelope.

Building the Hunter’s Curves

The bright curving stainless steel surfaces on the Hunter Museum use two signature Zahner systems, ZEPPS and the Inverted Seam system. These systems combine to make a roof which curves exactly as the architect’s original drawings. This curving surface is visibly seamless and completely protects the building against the elements.

The stainless steel is treated and processed with the Angel Hair mechanical finish, which reduces the glaring hotspots common on more reflective stainless steel, and enhances the sheen and glowing bounce of light that it generates.