More Projects

News & Updates

The Steven Spielberg-produced documentary Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero features Snøhetta's September 11th Memorial Museum, stainless steel cladding by Zahner.

Announcing the Zahner-KME joint venture for the European Market. Read the Press Release at the JV site. Zahner-KME in Joint Venture

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The Zahner App is now available for iPhone. Features hundreds of projects by artists and architects. iPhone App

Zahner Campus North Dock Expansion has won the Monsters of Design Honor Award; designed by Crawford Architects' Stephen Colin and Michael O'Donnell.

The North American Copper Awards has recognized Zahner's copper metal-work for the Waipolu Gallery in Oahu, Hawaii.

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Announcing the winners for the Biennial ZAHNER + KCAI Art and Sculpture Competition at KCAI.

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Tessellate™ kinetic metal surfaces by Zahner and ABI released: visually stunning and environmentally responsible.

Bill Zahner named an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects.

Introducing the Hands of the Artist™ division, where Zahner engineers and craftsmen produce projects for artists.
Visit Zahner's Hands of the Artist website

Art Wall at Doha

The Art Wall at Doha University Student Center

Completed in the Summer of 2010, Helix is a project designed by artist Jan Hendrix , produced with architectural firm Legoretta & Legoretta. Zahner engineered and produced the painted aluminum panels and substructurein Kansas City and shipped the completed pieces to Doha, Qatar, where local installers placed the large metal plates on both the interior and exterior frameworks.

The project involves nearly a thousand water jet cut and painted aluminum panels, and features a 40' high tower in the center of the courtyard.  The pattern cut into the panels is based off of the drawings of Jan Hendrix. The project is funded by the Qatar Foundation as part of the new Student Center at Doha University.  

Designing to Build

Jan Hendrix worked closely with the Design Assist Group to develop the project for production. The artist's team provided a digital model of the project, as well as a physical model (pictured below). The project required close attention to each panel's relation to one another, so that the artist's lines would transition without breaks from panel to panel.  This is called the "Parametric Relationship" and it's a key part of the ZIRA Process. 

Jan Hendrick's Model of Doha Art Wall

Construction in the shop of Doha Art Wall

L. William Zahner and Paul Martin were the main points of contact at Zahner, seen above discussing the metal finishes with Jan Hendrix during the design-assist phase at the Zahner shop.

The completed project features the artist's pattern on both the interior and exterior of the student center.  Note how the lines transition smoothly across seams from plate to plate. This is because we employed our ZIRA™ Process, allowing his drawings to automatically transfer through every step of the process, all while maintaining it's parametric relationship.

Each half-inch plate is 20 feet by 8 feet, and the material was water jet cut on our system of the same size. This isn't the first project we've worked with Jan Hendrix on, and he continues to employ us to create works of various scales. To see more collaborations with other artists including works by Jan Hendrix, take a look at our Hands of the Artist™ Initiative, where completed works assisted by Zahner engineers and craftsmen are displayed.

Zahner worked with the artist, Jan Hendrix, to define his image digitally so that it could be water-jet cut and fabricated into a cohesive composition with smooth lines flowing across multiple panels.  

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