Corporate | Zahner

Google Bay View Campus

Google’s Bay View Campus, located at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and comprising three buildings, represents a significant milestone as the company’s first self-designed and built campus.

Opened in 2022 and spanning 1.1 million square feet over 42 acres, the campus was brought to life through the collaborative efforts of renowned architectural firms Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Heatherwick Studio.

Grounded in Google’s core themes of innovation, nature, and community, the design prioritizes flexibility. Team spaces are located on the upper level, with gathering areas below, balancing focus and collaboration. Varied floorplates on the second floor create adaptable “neighborhoods” that evolve with team needs. The layout ensures that no employee is more than a two-and-a-half-minute walk from any other, fostering spontaneous interactions and collaboration.

Google Bay View campus in Mountain View, California.

Photo © Iwan Baan, Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio

Natural light floods the interiors through clerestory windows with “eyebrow” architectural elements crafted from Zahner’s Angel Hair® Stainless Steel, which add aesthetic appeal while diffusing sunlight to minimize glare.

Aerial view of Google Bay View campus in Mountain View, California.

Photo © Iwan Baan, Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio

Zahner also provided Design Assist services to ensure constructability, while preserving design intent and considering budget. Zahner collaborated with BIG and Heatherwick designers, as well as general contractor Whiting-Turner, on material selection, fabrication details, engineering, and installation.

The Zahner team inspects progress on installation of the Angel Hair eyebrows.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

Modular construction facilitated efficient installation of the eyebrows.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

Another standout feature of the campus is its distinctive “dragonscale” roof, composed of approximately 50,000 custom-designed solar panels, manufactured by SunStyle. This innovative roofing not only generates nearly seven megawatts of energy but also enhances insulation and reduces thermal heat gain.

Zahner Angel Hair eyebrows and Google's custom-designed dragonscale solar skin roofing.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

The Zahner team inspecting the Angel Hair eyebrows at Bay View during construction.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

Dragonscale building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solar shingles, manufactured by SunStyle, clad the roof at Google's Bay View.

Photo © Iwan Baan, Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio

Zahner Angel Hair eyebrows and Google's custom-designed dragonscale solar skin roofing.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

The campus is also home to North America’s largest geothermal pile system, which efficiently manages heating and cooling needs, leading to a projected 50% reduction in carbon emissions and saving an estimated five million gallons of water annually. Furthermore, the campus aims to replenish 120% of its water usage by 2030 through on-site recycled water systems.

Aerial view of Google Bay View campus in Mountain View, California.

Photo © Iwan Baan, Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio

The Google Bay View Campus has earned LEED-NC v4 Platinum certification, making it the largest building in the world to hold this certification. It’s also on track to become the largest facility ever to achieve the International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge (LBC) Water Petal Certification.

Panoramic view of Google Bay View campus in Mountain View, California.

Photo © Iwan Baan, Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio

Google’s Bay View Campus stands as a testament to the company’s vision of integrating cutting-edge design with sustainability and employee-centric spaces, setting a new benchmark for future workplace environments.

Panoramic view of Google Bay View campus in Mountain View, California.

Photo © Iwan Baan, Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio

Panoramic view of Google Bay View campus in Mountain View, California.

Photo © Iwan Baan, Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio

1700 Pennsylvania Avenue – The Mills Building

March 26, 2024/in Interior Architecture Corporate Washington D.C. Gensler Brown, Champagne, Grey S 2023 /by Katie Barone

The historic Mills Building at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue has undergone a complete transformation after a meticulous redesign and remodel completed in 2022. Renowned for its proximity to national landmarks, this iconic 11-story structure built in 1966 captivates with its attention to detail, expansive floor plates, and landscaped rooftop terrace offering unrivaled views of Washington, D.C.

Zahner worked with the late Bob Schofield, former senior vice president at master developer Akridge, who wanted a metal-paneled lobby that evoked movement and artistry. Schofield specified a unique finish of pure zinc for the interiors of the Mills Building, using ZEPPS (Zahner Engineered Profile Panel System) to create the curvilinear shape of the walls. This allowed the panels to be manufactured to very accurate dimensions in Kansas City while the building renovation was underway. Each ZEPPS module was floor to ceiling and 8 feet in width, allowing for the rapid installation of the pure zinc surface that was darkened to create a mottled finish on the small layered shingles.

Bill Zahner and Bob Schofield became good friends over the years as he challenged Zahner on a number of projects, creating some of the most remarkable metal surfaces in Washington, D.C. We miss Bob and the impact he had on the work.

A CUSTOM ZINC PATINA WAS DEVELOPED BY ZAHNER FOR THE LOBBY OF THE HISTORIC MILLS BUILDING IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE CURVILINEAR WALLS OF THE LOBBY WAS CREATED WITH ZAHNER'S ENGINEERED PROFILE PANEL SYSTEM (ZEPPS).

THE EARTH-TONED FINISH WAS PRODUCED VIA PATINATION ON PURE ZINC.

THE ZEPPS MODULES WERE DESIGNED TO FIT FLOOR-TO-CEILING, FACILITATING EFFICIENT INSTALLATION.

50 Hudson Yards Terrace

October 31, 2023/in Exterior Architecture Corporate New York City Kevin Daly Architects, Kohn Pedersen Fox Silver S 2022 /by Winifred Wright

Located on the 51st floor of 50 Hudson Yards, this canopy was designed by Kevin Daly Architects and built for Meta New York.

Because of unique geometry requirements Zahner was brought on to solve the dilemma of how to weld and curve 11-gauge mirror stainless steel without affecting the delicate finish.

The canopy utilizes over 400 of Zahner’s Drop & Lock™ panels as well as custom perforations with Louvered ZIRA™ patterned tabs. Each panel is uniquely welded, formed, and bent to create a sense of movement across the mirror surface in addition to reflecting back the landscaping below.

To avoid reflectivity issues on the top side of the canopy Zahner’s proprietary Angel Hair® Stainless Steel finish was used as a light-diffusing option.

The bottom side of the canopy features perforated mirror polish stainless steel.

The top of the 50 Hudson Yards terrace canopy features Zahner's Angel Hair stainless steel to mitigate reflectivity.

The 50 Hudson Yards Terrace canopy's underside panel perforations were created with Zahner's Louvered ZIRA™ technology.

Aerial view of the 50 Hudson Yards terrace canopy.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

1256 Penn Avenue

December 15, 2021/in Exterior Architecture Corporate Minneapolis--Minnesota LSE Architects Juxtaposition Arts Grey, Silver S 2018 /by dsegard

N Penn Ave and Plymouth Ave in Minneapolis, MN

Two ImageWall® murals clad the east and north sides of 1256 Penn Ave, featuring individual portrait panels of renowned local civil rights activists that helped shape the culture of Minneapolis.

The east mural depicts realistic portraits of Amanda Lyles, Archie Givens, Lena Olive Smith, Helen Claytor, Frederick Jones, Richard Green, Cap Wignington, Roy Wilkins, Cecil Newman, and W. Gertrude Brown.

The north mural features Van Freeman White, Richard Estes, Harry Davis, Keith Ellison, John Frank Wheaton, Nellie Stone Johnson, Frances Raines, I. Myrtle Carden, Frederick McGhee, George Bonga, and Matthew Little.

ImageWall mural featuring historic local civil rights figures at 1256 N Penn Ave in Minneapolis.

Photo by Parker Anderson, ARKO | © A. Zahner Company

Closeup of ImageWall panels on 1256 N Penn Ave.

Photo by Parker Anderson, ARKO | © A. Zahner Company

ImageWall mural depicting historic local civil rights figures on 1256 N Plymouth Ave in Minneapolis.

Photo by Parker Anderson, ARKO | © A. Zahner Company

Closeup of ImageWall panels on 1256 N Plymouth Ave.

Photo by Parker Anderson, ARKO | © A. Zahner Company

Perforation detail on ImageWall portrait.

Photo by Parker Anderson, ARKO | © A. Zahner Company

Full view of ImageWall portrait.

Photo by Parker Anderson, ARKO | © A. Zahner Company

Holmes Murphy Office

August 14, 2017/in Interior Architecture Corporate Kansas City BRR Architecture 2017 /by Winifred Wright

Kansas City, MO

Free-standing screen in Angel Hair Stainless Steel with a painted aluminum backing for office lobby.

Detail of free-standing screen in Angel Hair Stainless Steel with a painted aluminum backing.

Detail of free-standing screen structure.

Detail of free-standing screen in Angel Hair Stainless Steel with a painted aluminum backing.

Dolby Labs HQ

January 27, 2017/in Exterior Architecture Corporate, Flagship San Francisco Bay WRNS Studio Silver M 2018 /by cmorris

WRNS Studio designed the screening room and lobby at the Dolby Labs Headquarters in San Francisco. The 14,000 sq. ft. screening room was built to highlight the latest in sound-based cinematic technology. The exterior design of the building hints at what movie-goers will experience once inside.

Zahner engineered and fabricated louvered perforated panels in stainless steel with a GB-60™ bead blasted finish. Panels at street level continue the overall aesthetic with a dimpled surface and an Angel Hair® finish.

Sunlight activates the louvered perforated facade on the Dolby Labs Headquarters in San Francisco, California.

Design Assist helps achieve design intent

Through the Design Assist process, WRNS and Zahner collaborated to develop a stainless steel facade with custom reticulated louvers. Each louver was laser cut and bent at specific angles, achievable through the Zahner patented process known as Louvered ZIRA™.

The perforated apertures vary in size, flowing from large to small, top to bottom, creating a gradient effect. The end result is a facade that bends and directs light to converge in a single point. The intent is to mimic the Dolby precision sound-as-object technology, which allows sounds to emanate from anywhere in the theatre.

In this way, the Dolby brand experience begins before patrons enter the building. The louvered panels flow from the exterior façade into the upper half of the interior lobby, harmoniously connecting the two spaces.

Interior lobby under construction. Exterior facade design flows into the lobby.

About Louvered ZIRA

Louvered ZIRA system uses a United States registered patent owned by Zahner. The system works by three-dimensionalizing perforations using tabbed or folded perforation. Any laser-cut or milled shape can be formed into a micro louver on the surface of the metal. The machine cuts partial perforations with folded tabs, and opens the tab by folding the tab back.

Custom dimpled panels extend the aesthetic established by the louvered perforated panels.

Additional panels complete the street level facade with a dimpled surface that echoes the overall design. Integrated lighting adds another layer of intrigue to the building’s aesthetic after dark.

Louvered perforated panels catch and direct sunlight.

Harim Tower

January 4, 2017/in Exterior Architecture Corporate, Highrise Asia, International, Seoul--South Korea Beck Group Silver XL 2016 /by cmorris

Harim Group Headquarters in Seoul, Korea

Harim Tower in Gangnam, Seoul is the Beck Group-designed headquarters for the Harim Group company. The building features a Zahner engineered cladding system and custom bumped and perforated stainless steel throughout the interior and exterior.

The Harim Group wanted its new corporate headquarters to reflect its focus on sustainability and caring for its employees and the public. Beck provided a unique design solution which introduced 86,000 SF of mid-rise office tower on a small but high-value site. The project includes a boardroom for Harim Group, high-end restaurants, and a café in addition to a range of office spaces.

To reduce Korea’s high energy cost and to enhance the indoor air quality, Beck designed an operable window system for natural ventilation, high performance Low-E coated windows, LED light fixtures, building automation system, green roof, rainwater harvesting system and underfloor air distribution system.

Harim Group Headquarters entrance has a curving stainless steel facade system made by Zahner.

Curved metal facade of Harim Group Headquarters in Seoul.

Curved metal 'S' shape facade of the Harim facade in stainless steel.

Making the Curved Metal Facade for Harim Group Headquarters

Working under Mijie Industrial Company, Zahner developed a custom ZEPPS feature to produce an ‘S’ shaped recess in the building’s facade. ZEPPS is the Zahner system for developing unique forms and curvatures in metal. The ‘S’ shape for Harim Tower provides a unique aesthetic and design signature for the corporate headquarters. This recessed shape also creates a low pressure zone, facilitating natural ventilation on each of the floors.

The metal system Zahner provided was developed with a deep recess cavity for the lighting system. Zahner engineers introduced a modified ZEPPS hardware component which extended the panels 14″ from the building’ surface while retaining the precision curves.

Working with Well-Light, a Korean lighting design consultant, the team installed more than 10,000 LED lights of 4,000k color temperature which show through the building’s millions of perforations. “We tested several different color temperatures,” says Jay Chung, Director of Korea Operations at Beck Group. ”When we tried 3,000k color temperature lights it looked like the building was on fire. The 4,000k lights ended up giving us the perfect light. Plus they’re energy efficient.”

Detail of the curved stainless steel facade with custom perforated emboss panels.

Detail of the custom perforated emboss used to bump and perf the stainless steel facade.

Oakley Headquarters

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Corporate, Flagship, Workplace Los Angeles--California Langdon Wilson, Oakley, One Icon Design Colin Baden L, XL /by cmorris

Oakley Headquarters & Technical Center

The project features a blackened steel interior metalwork throughout, a spun aluminum architectural motif exterior, and a terne-coated stainless steel roof. The custom fabricated metal cladding was created from cold rolled steel plates and cast steel ‘bolt heads’. The Zahner-applied blackened metal finish produced an artistic, aged steel appearance.

Designed by Oakley director of design Colin Baden with Langdon Wilson Architecture, the headquarters and technical center was completed in multiple scopes. The project first began in 1997 and was completed in 1998. Years later the company would come back for additional scope, producing the Oakley reception desk in the same aesthetic.

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Oakley Fifth Avenue

This wasn't Zahner's first collaboration with Oakley. In the late 1990's Zahner's engineered metal-fabricated systems were used the facade and interiors of the Oakley Headquarters in Foothill Ranch, California.

Oakley Headquarters in Foothill Ranch, California.

Interior and reception desk at Oakley Headquarters in Foothill Ranch, California.

Interior metal at Oakley Headquarters in Foothill Ranch, California.

“

Friend of Ridley Scott, Oakley CEO Jim Jannard wanted to recreate the atmosphere of Blade Runner for his California office … The result is spectacular.

Strategies MagazineNone.

Oakley Headquarters desk and interior metalwork.

Zahner Fabricator assembles the sections of the Oakley HQ Desk.

Oakley Headquarters entrance during construction.

Oakley Headquarter entrance upon completion.

IBM Headquarters

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Corporate Armonk--New York Kohn Pedersen Fox L 1997 /by cmorris

IBM Headquarters at Armonk, New York.

Designed by KPF Architects for the international company IBM, the facade features a unique finish developed by Zahner engineers and fabricators.

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.

Designed to interact with its natural surroundings as much as possible, the building has a generous provision of controlled natural light and excellent views out to the landscape and open terraces for relaxation and informal meetings.

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.

Related Project

The Petersen

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.

How the IBM Headquarters Quietly Made Architectural History

The projects worked on by Zahner engineers and fabricators often provide great design challenges, not only for Zahner, but often for the entire architectural team. Some of the best architectural R&D happens in architecture by way of this collaboration — the mind and the hands, or the designers and the builders.

For the IBM Headquarters, the desire to push the boundaries by KPF Architects was met and matched in an equal willingness for risk by the engineers and fabricators at A. Zahner Company. The architects wanted an softened reflectivity in its metal surface. This is something which wasn’t being offered in architecture at the time. The architects also wanted pristine edges at a time when most sheet metal fabrication was done by metal braking systems, which gave the metal corners a rounded radius.

Zahner set about developing these two technologies that would go on to shape and influence facade design and architecture aesthetics. The first was its surface, a uniform non-directional finish on stainless steel developed with Rimex in the United Kingdom. The surface which went on to influence Zahner’s own GB-60 stainless steel.

The second innovation is a metal fabrication technique used to create sharp uniform corners, Zahner’s Radius Reduction technologies. Instead of traditional brake-forming of the panels, the metal’s edges were formed by deeply scoring the backside of the panels so that the folds were sharply creased, so much so that the front panels appear as solid metal surfaces.

Detail of the thick machined plate stainless steel on the IBM Headquarters.

Detail of the plate panel systems on the IBM Headquarters.

Detail of the satin reflectivity of the plate panels used on IBM Headquarters.

Stainless steel plate panel system developed by Zahner for IBM Headquarters.

IBM Headquarters Entrance at Armonk, New York.

Upward view of the IBM Headquarters Entrance at Armonk, New York.

Aerial photograph of the IBM Headquarters in Armonk, New York.

The building assumes an extended, tapering Z-shape, which adapts well to both the existing site contours and to the open space program required by IBM as a significant change to their corporate culture. The central wing includes areas of enclosed space for executive offices and meeting rooms. The connecting wings maintain a highly functional core-to-wall depth to accommodate the open office workstations. The internal, irregular spaces within the plan are utilized for conference rooms, services and core functions.

The client for the project was IBM Corporation, and the design team included Swank Hayden Connell as interior designer. The entire project’s footprint is 280,000SF.

The award-winning design was recongnized by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture & Design American Architecture Award as well as AIA Westchester Chapter Architecture Award.