Experience Music Project

Experience Music Project & Science Fiction Museum

Jimi Hendrix inspired the name, Frank Gehry designed the project, and Zahner produced the stunning curvilinear forms and structure. Residing in the shadow of the Seattle Space Needle, Civil Enginering Magazine calls it the "most complex exterior skin ever devised for a building."

The Experience Music Project (EMP) was the first project to use the patented ZEPPS™ Process for producing curvilinear and complex structures. Since then, the ZEPPS™ Process has gone through multiple iterations, growing more powerful, accurate, and refined.

The forms of EMP were created using over 4,000 ZEPPS™ Panels fabricated by Zahner using over 21,000 sheets of metal. No two sheets and no two panels were the same.

The Experience Music Project was one of Frank Gehry and Zahner's first big collaborations, and the first implementation of what was to become the most powerful and efficient system for constructing complex curves and forms, prevalent in works by Frank Gehry and Randall Stout.

How to Build Anything

The ZEPPS™ Process was first developed to meet the demanding curvature of the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington. Notable for its twisting curves and smooth planes of stunning sheet metal, the facade is installed on the smart wall panel system we now call the ZEPPS™ Process. A highly specialized team was assembled at Zahner to develop this process. This team is called the Design Assist Group (DAG), and the members of this team continue to advance the ZEPPS™ Process, develop new systems, and guide architects, designers, and general contractors through the process of building complex forms.

ZEPPS™ allows our team to efficiently produce these complex forms with minimal waste and a reduced ecological footprint, eliminating the need for additional structural construction. This massive project includes 3,300 unique panel assemblies, resulting in over 140,000 square feet of metal surfacing. The surfaces used included our Angel Hair™ Stainless Steel, Red Interference Coated Stainless Steel and Fluorocarbon-coated Aluminum.

View of Experience Music Project Stainless

View of Science Fiction Museum Interference Stainless


EMP During Construction, Revealing ZEPPS™ Process.

Experience Music Project, Completed.
 

View of Experience Music Project Stainless

View of Experience Music Project Stainless

More Projects

News & Updates

"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.

 

Read more...

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

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

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

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