Los Angeles--California

Restoration: “That Profile”

December 30, 2016/in Art & Sculpture Museum, Public Art, Renovation, Restoration, Sculpture Los Angeles--California Martin Puryear L 1999 /by cmorris

Note: Contemporary metal materials are known for their inherent immutability. While a number of metals can withstand many decades, it is important to consider how these materials are fabricated and installed, such that environmental concerns, galvanic corrosion, alloy selection, and other factors are properly considered and understood.

The long-term preservation of metal art and architecture is at the forefront of the research by CEO L. William Zahner. Through his role as chairman at Metalabs and his ongoing research and publications, Mr. Zahner hopes to promote the resilience of both immutable and transformative metals throughout the disciplines of art, sculpture, and architecture.

Restoring Art: That Profile, by Martin Puryear

That Profile is a forty-five foot sculpture by American artist Martin Puryear. The artwork rises into the air above the Tram Arrival Plaza at The Getty Center in Los Angeles, California. Installed in 1999, the stainless steel and bronze sculpture began showing signs of deterioration after a short time, which led administrators at The Getty to seek an expert in metal restoration.

The Getty contacted L. William Zahner, an expert in the field of metal sciences, to run tests on That Profile and determine how to restore and protect it for the future. His analysis revealed that the stainless steel “nodes” or joints which connect the linear aspects of the sculpture had weakened in the California weather. Mr. Zahner developed a two-stage cleaning process with a chemical wash and electropolishing process to revive the original stainless steel finish and add strength to the nodes.

MARTIN PURYEAR, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA; GETTY MUSEUM OF ART STAINLESS STEEL, BRONZE; 45′ X 30′ X 12′ 1999.

That Profile by Martin Puryear. Stainless steel and bronze sculpture.

Team Disney

November 8, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Workplace Anaheim--California, Los Angeles--California Frank Gehry Partners Blue, Green, Violet XL 1995, 1996 /by cmorris

disneyland theme park offices, Anaheim

A pillowed facade of iridescent green, blue and violet adorns the surface of the Team Disney building in Anaheim, California. Designed by Frank Gehry Partners, the building serves as the administrative offices of the Disneyland theme park.

Zahner provided the custom green interference-coated stainless steel. The iridescent surface changes from blue to green to violet when viewed at varying angles. The addition of an embossed diamond pattern creates a quilted, pillow-like effect.

At the time it was constructed, it was the largest green stainless steel surface ever produced. Completion of the structure marks the first time all administrative staff have been located in one facility since the park opened in 1955.

“We’ll get more work done in the hallways than we did in the conference rooms. This finally brings it all together.”
— Disneyland President Paul Pressler.

Related Surface

Team Disney

North-side of the Team Disney Anaheim building.

Detail of the interference stainless steel at Team Disney Anaheim.

View from across the highway at Team Disney Anaheim.

Lineage Logistics

October 10, 2016/in Interior Architecture Workplace Irvine--California, Los Angeles--California Gensler White S 2016 /by cmorris

Lineage Logistics Headquarters in Irvine California

Lineage Logistics is a port warehousing, logistics, and cold storage company with offices around the world. For the firm’s latest workspace renovation, Zahner produced custom fabricated metal with unique perforations. The design-team at Gensler Architects used ImageWall by Zahner to generate and detail their custom imagery in a custom punched metal system.

The challenge for the design team was to convey this global mission for Lineage Logistics throughout the design of its new interior. To achieve this, Gensler worked with the ImageWall team at Zahner, developing imagery of a world map which connects the office area to a casual gathering space. The end result is an inspiring representation of their client’s world-facing outlook, providing an enchanting interior which aligns the work and social spaces at Lineage Logistics in Irvine, California.

Interior metal ImageWall system with backlit painted aluminum panels.

Interior perforated metal at Lineage Logistics.

Detail of the Cross-Seam Perforation used to achieve reduced infills and eliminate the

The bespoke metal system is a custom-fabricated wall enclosure manufactured in painted aluminum with an image-punched metal aesthetic. An LED light system outlines the interior surface of the ImageWall system providing ambient backlighting. White-painted hardware, along with material and lighting selections, achieved a clean white look for the interior.

The ImageWall system makes use of Cross-Seam Perforation technology, a standard option available to ImageWall systems. Cross-Seam Perforation eliminates the “picture frame” effect that occurs with typical perforated metal panels. The resulting effect is an alignment of the image’s parametric relationship along panel folds, creating an easy to read continuous graphic.

Detail of the Lineage Logistics interior perforated wall system

Backlit perforated metal serves as an accent wall between corporate spaces.

Detail of the perforated metal, painted grey on its exterior and white on its interior.

Interior perforated metal system for Lineage Logistics.

W Hollywood

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Landscape Architecture Highrise, Hospitality, LEED Los Angeles--California Daly Genik, HKS Grey M 2010 /by cmorris

W Hollywood Flagship Hotel and Residences, Rooftop Canopy

One of the earliest completed architectural works which could be described as “generative design”, the rooftop canopy for the W Hollywood flagship was designed by HKS and Daly Genik. The design team’s concept was ahead of its time: the lightweight shingled surface which allows air and light to flow through its surface is both functionally and aesthetically forward-thinking, an aesthetic which became highly visible years after its completion.

Its form evokes the effect of a ruffled skirt, a concept which has become more prevalent since the structure’s completion. The design also provides a cooling effect both for its shade and breeze.

The 15-story award winning building is certified LEED Silver, winning the prestigious Millennium Award. Completed in 2010, the hotel is located in downtown Hollywood in California, an area which is becoming vertically dense with highrise buildings such as the W Hollywood.

Zahner was involved with the Daly Genik-designed curvilinear aluminum and steel canopy on the building’s rooftop garden. The canopy brings thousands of shingled aluminum panels to adorn the curving form which serves as a shade canopy for W Hollywood pool-side guests.

W Hollywood Hotel in CAD

Image © A. Zahner Company.

Architects from Daly Genik examine the mockup at Zahner.

The system borrows components from the ZEPPS process, which informed both the fabrication and installation process for the rooftop cabana. Zahner’s Design Assist team designed the details and engineered the structural canopy. The Design Assist team met with architects from Daly Genik to develop a section of the canopy as a mockup, which was constructed in the Zahner shop in Kansas City.

Architect's Rendering of the W Hollywood Flagship Hotel.

W Hollywood Further Reading

The highlight of the hotel’s rooftop pool area is a curving cabana wrapped in aluminum scales; it was designed by Daly Genik Architects, which also was responsible for the condominium interiors and the striking Douglas fir-lined lobby for the condo tower. Kevin Daly, a founder of the firm, said the W asked him to design the cabana as ‘a Venus’ flytrap for supermodels.

— Christopher Hawthorne, LA Times

Below are links to both external resources, articles, and press, as well as internal links to similar projects and products used in the W Hollywood Flagship Hotel.

W Hollywood Awards The W Hollywood Website.
Architects Newspaper Team Hollywood Alissa Walker, January 2010
LA Times W Hotel: An Urban Complexity Christopher Hawthorne, January 2010
Google Maps W Hotel Hollywood Map in Zahner Earth
Zahner Product: ZEPPS Process for building complex curves

The Petersen

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Automotive, Museum, Parking Structure Los Angeles--California Kohn Pedersen Fox Red, Silver L, XL 2015 Featured, Related Work /by cmorris

The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California:

Situated on Los Angeles’ famous Miracle Mile, the newly renovated Petersen Automotive Museum has achieved an iconic status while creating open spaces which invite community engagement. The design encases the building in a red-painted corrugated aluminum rainscreen system which acts as the backdrop for a series of stainless steel structural ribbons. These scopes were engineered, manufactured, and installed by Zahner.

Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) in New York with the construction management by Matt Construction in Los Angeles, Zahner was brought onto the project early on in the planning and development process. Starting under a Zahner Assist (Design Assist) contract, the construction team developed a fabrication and installation strategy with the engineers at Zahner.

This is the second project completed by Zahner with KPF. The two teams worked together prior on the IBM Headquarters in Armonk, New York.

Related Project

IBM Headquarters

Nestled within a landscape of 450 wooded, rocky acres some 50 miles from Manhattan, the IBM World Headquarters exemplifies KPF’s demonstrated ability to respond to the natural context and produce an innovative work of architecture. Completed in 1997, the headquarters is the centerpiece of an existing corporate campus in this wooded setting with deep ravines slicing through the landscape.

Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California.

Making the Petersen Automotive Museum

Design development for the Petersen Automotive Museum began in 2012. Principal Trent Tesch knew that the complex shapes would be best defined under a Design Assist contract with Zahner. Examining the forms gave the team an opportunity to approach their design with as much information as possible. Zahner Assist enabled KPF to bring the client into a conversation with Zahner.

Sharing models and preliminary drawings while the design was still conceptual allowed for conversations regarding costs and aesthetics to remain transparent, assisting the client during the decision making process.

The project made use of several Zahner technologies and methodologies: the ZEPPS Process for designing and manufacturing the building’s curved forms; the Angel Hair non-directional surfacing applied to each of the stainless steel skins attached to the curved forms; and Zahner Assist, Zahner’s method for developing complex projects into factory-produced realities. The project also includes an ImageWall custom perforated metal screen which continues the architect’s design, mimicking the stainless ribbons in a perforated metal graphic across the building’s parking structure. The Petersen Automotive Museum is the direct result of a design team confidently departing from convention.

Perforated metal screenwall by Zahner continues the Petersen Automotive Museum's sculptural motif.

Underneath the undulating ribbon facade of the Petersen Automotive Museum.

A perforated parking garage facade continues the stainless steel ribbon motif.

Detail of the facade of the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Design Assist Mockup for the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Design Assist Mockup at dusk for the Petersen Automotive Museum.

The Mock Up as a Design Catalyst

As part of the Zahner Assist contract, we included a to-scale visual mockup. Mockups are included as part of this process in order to aid in design decision making and determine the best method for building any given form. The team selected the lower northeast corner of the building’s design to fabricate as a mockup section. This empowered the design team to determine how the ribbons would wrap around the corner, an integral aspect of the building’s design.

The mockup process provided Zahner crucial insight into how to best develop the red-painted structural steel armatures which are used throughout the project. The mockup also helped the design team establish the ideal color for the painted corrugated aluminum surface.

Zahner installers hang a ZEPPS Ribbon Assembly at the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Zahner fabricators create the ZEPPS Ribbon assemblies for the Petersen Automotive Museum.

3D Model of a single ZEPPS Assembly for the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Zahner field installers at the construction site for the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Creating the new Petersen Automotive Museum facade

The existing building, purchased by the Petersen Automotive Museum in 1994, was rectilinear and fairly straightforward in form. It was originally a department store. Six years after the store closed, museum founder Robert Petersen chose the site to house his automotive museum. Since the Museum is nearly devoid of windows, the site was ideal for safely housing Mr. Petersen’s collection without harmful exposure to sunlight.

Because the existing building contained very little glass and was box-like in form, it acted as a blank canvas for the design team. ZEPPS, the Zahner system for developing sculptural forms, was used to build curving stainless steel ‘ribbons’ which wrap the building, giving it a feeling of rapid motion. The result looks similar to the aerodynamic flow diagrams drawn in wind tunnel tests by automotive designers.

Using ZEPPS to Create Dual-Curving Forms

To build complex dual curving forms with the lightest structural loads, Zahner uses the ZEPPS process. ZEPPS stands for Zahner Engineered Profiled Panel Systems, and comprises Zahner’s approach to building complex, curvilinear forms. The crux of the system is the paring down of a complex design into manageable parts for manufacturing.

Using an architect’s 3D model, Zahner’s engineers examine geometry with a manufacturing mindset. Each curve is analyzed and developed into a series of patented aluminum structural components. These components are pre-assembled at the shop and compose the structural form for each ZEPPS Asssembly. Using aluminum extrusions rather than steel allows for a lighter load on the structure of the façade, and also allows for more economical fabrication methods.

The final step in creating with ZEPPS is to clad it in surface material. For the Petersen Automotive Museum, Zahner’s Angel Hair Stainless Steel surface was selected. After the structure is built, each ZEPPS is clad in the desired metal, and loaded onto a truck for field install. By breaking dual curves into units, ZEPPS creates precision within the manufacturing process, and allows for much quicker field installation.

Detail of the Petersen Automotive Museum's Angel Hair Stainless steel.

View of Wilshire Blvd during the construction of the Petersen.

Screenwall at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California.

Underneath the Roof of the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Structural Steel

A new structural steel exoskeleton was needed to carry the loads from the red corrugated rainscreen as well as the cantilevered stainless steel ribbons which arch over the rooftop to provide shading for a private event space.

Working with the designers’ 3D models, Zahner’s team of engineers developed a series of tree-like forms in structural steel to support the ZEPPS Ribbon assemblies. The structural steel skeleton was inspired by hot rod manifolds to serve the dual purpose of providing aesthetic cohesiveness as well as functional support for cantilevered elements of the design. The structural ‘trees’ support the ribbons that flow over the roof area, as well as the Fairfax Ave ground level ribbons.

The ZEPPS ribbons required custom curved structural steel within each unit. Zahner mapped out each curved radius using the 3D model, allowing for fabrication in the shop to be handled quickly and precisely.

Custom Corrugated Aluminum

Painted aluminum acts as the backdrop for the stainless steel ZEPPS forms, echoing the concept of a sports car in bright red intensity. The aluminum was completely custom, and unlike any standard corrugated pattern. The corrugated profile formed an exact 90 degree angle, versus the typical sine wave that is commonly seen in corrugated metals.

To accommodate for the custom nature of this design element, Zahner formed each of the corrugated panels in house, utilizing a custom die within the press brake.

ImageWall Screenwall for the Petersen Parking Enclosure

As a continuation of the stainless steel ribbons, the design team also selected a painted red aluminum ImageWall for the Museum’s Parking Garage. Using Zahner’s patented technology, ImageWall uses perforated holes to map an image across multiple panels. In this case, the image provides cohesiveness, and ties the parking garage in with the larger facade.

ImageWall Screenwall enclosing the Parking Structure of the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Detail of the screenwall facade of the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Parking Structure Screenwall at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California.

Los Angeles Police Department Memorial to Fallen Officers

The new LAPD Memorial to Fallen Officers stands as a testament to the strength and courage of the Los Angeles Police Department. The memorial is dedicated to the police officers and families who have sacrificed for the community of Los Angeles.

“

We focused on the object most sacred to the LAPD: the brass badge.

David HerjeczkiPrincipal, Gensler

The project began after David Herjeczki and Christopher Keough of Gensler won a design competition for the new memorial. Working with a multi-layered concept, they developed meaning in both its design as well as its context.

“When you approach it from a distance, it will appear as a wall, reflecting the unity of the police force,” explains David Herjeczki of Gensler. “As you get closer, you will see it is an assemblage of individual pieces, each one paying tribute to a fallen officer. When contemplating an appropriate material for the memorial, we focused on the object most sacred to the LAPD: the brass badge.”

Los Angeles Police Department Memorial at the LAPD Headquarters.

The Memorial prior to installation at the LAPD Headquarters.

The LAPD Memorial dedication in Los Angeles, California.

Designing and Fabricating the Brass Memorial

To fabricate the 32′ long by 12′- 3” tall brass memorial, Kansas City-based fabricators at Zahner were enlisted to develop the team’s concept into reality. Of the 2000 shimmering brass plaques, 201 were engraved with the name, the rank and the date that each officer gave their life for a common cause.

Each plaque is staggered and set in relief. This both draws attention to the individual whose name is inscribed while allowing light from behind to illuminate each plaque. The memorial also features an abstracted badge design in the center of the memorial. The remaining plates are left blank. These plates are removable should additional names need to listed on the memorial.

The memorial’s presence was felt throughout Kansas City. After the wall was manufactured and prepared for shipment, the Kansas City Police Department escorted the delivery truck to the city limits to begin its 1,600-mile journey to Los Angeles.

“Several of us here got choked up when we found out Kansas City Police would be escorting it to city limits,” said Linda Wagener CEO of the Los Angeles Police Foundation. “In law enforcement, we really are a brotherhood.”

KCPD Officers escort the Memorial to Kansas City limits.

Los Angeles Police Officer sees the LAPD Memorial for the first time during its arrival.

The wall is set in the public plaza which is adjacent to the new police headquarters. This space, that both the police and community share, was formally dedicated on October 14, 2009. Open 24 hours a day, the memorial allows visitors to show their respect and remember the officers who have given the ultimate sacrifice.

Brass plates adorned during the dedication in Los Angeles.

Design Engineering the Los Angeles Memorial

To intelligently build the project with the small available budget required some efficient choices in the design process. Zahner began working with Gensler early on to come up with a series of solutions that did not compromise the integrity of the design or the quality of construction. The solution for this is Design Assist, a service which provides custom design solutions.

Design Assist is the process of translating the architects model to a production-ready scheme. The Design Assist process is often a collaborative re-design of the project, an essential process to ensure the constructibility of the project later down the line.

In the case of the LAPD Memorial, the architects had several web meetings with Zahner, where they were able to digitally rotate and discuss the model, tearing parts away, and streamlining the design to its core structure. The resulting design is a sustainable and flexible memorial that will stand the test of time.

Location of the memorial adjacent to the Los Angeles Police building, marked in red.

Architect's diagram of the monument design.

Growing a Stable Patina on Architectural Copper

The architects wanted to use a natural material with an aged look. Zahner’s Dirty Penny patinated copper was selected as the base material. This oxidized copper material was developed by Zahner to expedite the natural weathering process of copper. Rather than taking years to develop a rich, dark patina, the Dirty Penny process results in a stable patinated surface using a rapid chemical-based treatment. The panels for Festival of Arts were pre-patinated and shipped directly to the jobsite for installation.

The unsealed patinated panels will continue to age with time. The metal’s surface acts as a living protective barrier, similar to the way moss grows on stone. Unlike paint or anodization, which will deteriorate with time, the custom copper patina will continue to grow stronger as the surface oxidizes.

Manufacturing Accurately-Curved Architectural Forms

Creating the curvature for the panels proved to be a unique challenge. Some of the walls were derived from a single radius, while other sections included more than one radius in a single wall. All of these were tangent to one another. Due to the embossed and debossed bump pattern, the usual method of processing the entire sheet through a roll former could not be used. This compression would damage the bumps. Zahner’s solution was to crimp roll the top and bottom legs of each panel.

Crimp rolling the edges gave the sheets a gentle curve, but the process is not entirely precise. So to increase precision, Zahner also created a series of aluminum templates at the desired radius. Zahner was able to match the copper panels to the aluminum templates during the crimping process, resulting in a highly accurate architectural form.

The resulting geometry matches identically to the each of the radii provided in the architect’s model.

Simplifying the Concealed Attachments

Copper rolled angles were used as attachment hardware on the backs of each panel and fastened to existing mullions. In order to fit the curvature, these angles were also stretched to the appropriate radius. Coordination of fasteners to the copper rolled angles became key.

To disguise fasteners, Zahner assisted with coordinating the location for a series of aluminum “hats” on the mullions. Each piece of hat hardware lines up with a perforated hole. Fasteners were run through the perforations, to the back hardware. This allows for panels to be removed with ease, so that signage could be easily installed, and maintenance remains uncomplicated.

Designing concealed hardware is one of the advantages of using Zahner’s engineering and design team for projects like this. Contact Zahner to see what kinds of assistance we can provide for your project, or learn about how you can get your team started early with Zahner using Design Assist.

Building the Emerson College at Los Angeles

Zahner was brought onto the project based on previous work with the architects on projects such as Cooper Union New Academic Building in New York City, Eugene Federal Courthouse in Oregon, Gates Hall at Cornell and also an interior project which may have been the first Morphosis project to feature this kind of generative design, Clyde Frazier’s Wine & Dine in New York City.

The generative design of its scrim isn’t the only aspect of engineering and manufacture that Zahner worked on for the project. Zahner’s scope of work included both the engineered aluminum scrim wall as well as the dual-curvature forms contained within the building’s square structure.

At the building’s core is a complex form which contains many of the presentation rooms, classrooms and administrative spaces. To create the complex form with Morphosis, engineers used ZEPPS, the Zahner building process for creating sculptural forms. ZEPPS provides a secondary structural facade system which allowed the architects to efficiently put together an otherwise complex form.