Alexandria Parking Structure

Located in the Mission Bay Block 27 of San Francisco, designed by WRNS Studio for Alexandria Real Estate Equities, houses 1,420 parking spaces on seven elevated levels. The structure features a metal screen with perforated imagery of California's redwood forests. This facade was design-engineered by the Design Assist Group and produced by Zahner.

WRNS Studio architects desired an abstract pattern composed of four distinct oval cut-outs. They provided tree imagery and Zahner Design Engineers processed the imagery into the myriad of circular shapes to abstract the form. For the surface, the Architects decided on a perforated bronze-anodized aluminum cladding, which covers the entirety of the metal scope for the garage.

The perforated pattern was generated using a photograph of foliage. It was run through several computer processes to rapidly produce the millions of custom perforated panels. This computer-to-machine language translation is known as the the ZIRA™ process, a patented process for translating the architect's imagery into pixelized, perforated and bumped panels.

This project was an experimental use of the ZIRA™ Process, as the individual punched shapes were integral to the project. Four round punch patterns completed the surface of the screen-wall. The ZIRA™ Visualizer is a flexible process that allows architects, designers, and engineers to transfer an image onto the surface of metal using physical processes such as perforation, bumped and dimpled surface patterns, as well as waterjet cut patterns and other physical alterations.

The northwest and south sides of the parking structure feature an intriguing stucco facade. The building is located in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco.

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