de Young Museum

Named for San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young, this building is a completely reworked redesign from the original museum, which opened in 1895 as an outgrowth of the California International Exposition of 1894. After the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 which completely ravaged the original building's structure, the de Young board began working to fund a restructuring of the building, and the resulting winner of the competition for its redesign in the late 1990's was acclaimed Swiss architects, Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron.

Herzog & de Meuron developed the idea of a variably perforated screen exterior which would mirror the green foliage and forestry of the surrounding Golden Gate Park, San Francisco's central park. The architects worked with Zahner whose engineers and software specialists developed a system which would allow unique perforation and patterned dimples, variably sized and placed thoughout the exterior. This included over 8000 unique panels whose collective whole formed the pattern of light through trees - literally. This was the first iteration of the Zahner Interpretive Relational Algorithmic Process, or the ZIRA™ Process.

The architects came up with a photo taken pointed up through the trees, and in several parts of the museum, light filters through the perforated system of holes, revealing shadows similar in shape and form to those of actual trees. The ZIRA™ Process streamlined this complex series of variable holes in the copper, allowing engineers to run chosen imagery through the algorithmic system, translating it to the thousands of copper plates. At the time, this mosaic algorithmic process was emerging, but was unheard of in the world of architecture. Zahner hired software developers and engineers to assist in this technological advancement.

Above left, the surface of the 'Children's Entry' was created using imagery from a photograph provided by the architects (right). The vantage point looks up into a sky obscured by trees. Similarly, the section of the Museum featuring this surface was initially open, recreating the effect on metal. Since installation, the area has been covered for moisture control.

Architects originally called for a light golden-hued appearance for the Museum. However, as the intentions evolved, a desire for the Museum to blend and emerge from its forested surroundings like an ancient indigenous structure.

Zahner CEO/President L. William Zahner guided this decision. A champion of the integrity, resilience, and unpredictability of copper, he educated clients by explaining that over time it would transition from its bright golden red, to a dark brown, to a black, and finally, it will slowly emerge into earthy greens.

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"Zinc shows its mettle" - The Miami Herald 4/20/2013

Zahner's Director of Marketing, Gary Davis, discusses the benefits and uses of Zinc in architecture.