Exterior Architecture

Instructional Centre

University of Toronto Mississauga Instructional Centre

The University of Toronto at Mississauga (UTM) has developed a number of unique buildings to serve the students on its campus. The Instructional Centre at UTM is no different. Clad in a Zahner pre-patinated copper surface, this custom blue patina on copper was developed specifically for the project.

The patina was an inspired decision by the architects at Perkins + Will whose design required a number of unique aspects for both the interior and exterior of the building.

The architects wanted a facade with an artistic patina, revealing the bare copper in some areas, and hitting dark points in others. This mottled appearance appears natural, but it is manufactured by Zahner.

The award-winning University of Toronto Instruction Centre’s new building is certified LEED Silver, and was completed in 2011.

Related Surface

Instructional Centre

Under normal circumstances, raw copper sheet will develop a copper patina after ten to twenty years. In the case of the UTM Instructional Centre, this patina was developed in a matter of weeks by chemically oxidizing the metal in a controlled environment.

Zahner patina technicians developed a custom Star Blue patina on the copper, modifying its application technique for artistic effect. Zahner cultivates and trains patination experts for both their scientific prowess as well as their artistic vision, because many clients require a high-performance artistic patinated panel rather than a uniform machine-produced surface.

These copper sheets were then formed by Zahner into a panels. The prefabricated panels were crated and shipped to the job site in Toronto, where the pre-patinated panels were installed.

Students walking at dawn amidst the blue copper facade.

Students walk up and down the main staircase.

Overhead view of the new building at UTM.

Interior view showing the variance of brown and green copper.

The mood of the patinated copper interior walls changes during the evening.

The Instructional Centre is built just northwest of the recently completed Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre. The new building features a cafe in the main entrance and lobby underneath the main staircase.

The Instructional Centre’s design includes two lecture halls stacked vertically and organized into three towers, each clad in the pre-patinated copper. Each of these solid volumes enclose smaller perimeter lounges, enticing students to gather before and after lectures.

The UTM Instructional Centre is located at the north end of campus in place of a parking lot.Read more about the pre-patinated Star Blue patina used on the surface of the building, or Contact Zahner to request custom samples for your project.

Independence Temple

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Worship Center Independence--Missouri HOK L /by cmorris

Independence Temple & Community of Christ International HQ

Independence Temple is one of the first architectural icons produced in the Kansas City region with Zahner engineering and fabrication. Located in Independence, Missouri, the building was built in 1994. At the time of construction, it was the RLDS Temple, and later was renamed Independence Temple.

The shape of the design evokes the form of a spiral nautilus shell. Gyo Obata of HOK asked Zahner to develop a conical roof based on a conch shell that he had selected from a large collection of seashells during a design meeting. This form was developed with Zahner engineers into a roof system for the new church headquarters.

Related Project

White Chapel

Zahner was responsible to the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for the production and installation of the total building envelope. Zahner designed, fabricated, and installed the custom tapered roof and glazing system.

Independence Temple designed by Gyo Obata of HOK.

Aerial photograph of the Independence Temple designed by Gyo Obata of HOK.

Photo © Bing.

Aerial photograph of the Independence Temple in Missouri.

Detail of the Independence Temple spire, designed by Gyo Obata of HOK.

A prefabricated element of the roof spire is secured for shipment.

The above picture provides a view into the engineering and construction used on the top of the spire. Union workers at Zahner prepare the part for shipment. After its installation, custom engineered panels are attached to the face of the this sub-structure, resulting in a quick and smart installation.

The solution for producing the roof consisting of more than 300 uniquely assembled megapanels, each tapered and unique in shape. This sheet metal skins of the roof cladding are produced in a custom-finish stainless steel. The complexity of this roof attests to the engineering and design prowess, as well as the skilled Zahner fabricators and installation team involved with this project.

How Buildings were Made in the Digital Dark Age

When this building was made in 1994, the architects at HOK used a proprietary software system to complete their design work. At the same time, Zahner engineers were producing their work using AutoCAD to augment what was still mostly drafting at the time.

Today, everything is defined digitally, but in the 1990’s this task was very manual. To develop the project with accuracy, Zahner took field measurements of certain defining points of the roof, and radioed them back to the shop, where a custom written AutoCAD script was waiting to divide the roof surface into panels.

Today, a similar design would be developed from a digital model. However, at the time, using process was sufficient to give Zahner engineers the tools to produce this very intricate design. If Zahner were to produce the project today, the current technologies would cut the project’s schedule in half.

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.

Hunter Museum

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Museum Chattanooga--Tennessee Derthick-- Henley & Wilkerson, Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects, Musalli-- Shakir-- and Mandilli, Randall Stout Architects Blue-grey, Grey, Silver L 2005 /by cmorris

THE Hunter Museum of American Art

Designed by architect Randall Stout Architects, the Hunter Museum of American Art is Zahner’s first project with the renowned firm. Mr. Stout grew up in Tennessee, so to be chosen to design Chattanooga’s new wing of the Hunter Museum was particularly meaningful for both the community as well as the architect.

The Museum sits on an 80′ tall bluff above the Tennessee River where the building’s dynamic lines and twisting curves provide a contrast to the original museum’s classic style, adjacent to Randall Stout’s contemporary design. In 2002 the Hunter Museum of American Art partnered with the City of Chattanooga, the Tennessee Aquarium and the Creative Discovery Museum to finish the 21st Century Waterfront Plan.

Zahner produced the geometric zinc metal surface as well as the curvilinear Angel Hair stainless steel roof forms, interior stainless steel stairway, and various metal details throughout the building.

Related Project

Taubman Museum

Designed by Randall Stout Architects, the building includes a range of metal components manufactured and installed by Zahner engineers and artisans. Zahner was responsible for engineering, fabrication, and installation of the exterior secondary structure and facade. Zahner also provided interior metal surfaces for the project.

View of the Hunter Museum of American Art at sunrise.

Detail of the New Hunter Museum entrance.

Visitors on the outdoor deck of the Hunter Museum.

Selecting the Surface

The architect’s specifications originally called for a limestone exterior in additional to the stainless steel curving roof. Limestone would have cladded the vertical walls as well as many of the slanting angles throughout the building. As the project progressed, it became apparent that installing limestone was implausible in many areas due to the structural weight of the material.

At this point, Zahner was already contracted to produce the stainless steel roof. The architect asked Zahner to come up with some textured surfaces to match the limestone aesthetic.

Zahner had already been developing a wide range of custom patinas on many alloys of metal. The design team worked through several options, and decided to replace the limestone with a light gauge Hunter Zinc panels system. The preweathered zinc surface has a tonality which closely resembles the limestone surroundings. This material was used throughout the museum, on both the interior walls and the exterior building envelope.

Building the Hunter’s Curves

The bright curving stainless steel surfaces on the Hunter Museum use two signature Zahner systems, ZEPPS and the Inverted Seam system. These systems combine to make a roof which curves exactly as the architect’s original drawings. This curving surface is visibly seamless and completely protects the building against the elements.

The stainless steel is treated and processed with the Angel Hair mechanical finish, which reduces the glaring hotspots common on more reflective stainless steel, and enhances the sheen and glowing bounce of light that it generates.

Contractors standing below several recently installed ZEPPS® Panels during construction.

The most efficient and effective way to build these curves is with large ZEPPS assemblies which are produced in the fabrication shop and shipped to the site as preassembled massive panels, as pictured above the construction workers in the reference image, above.

Each of these ZEPPS lines up with adjacent panels, and includes flexible connections which allow for tolerance if the structural steel that it bolts onto is misaligned. Ensuring the subtle curvatures is crucial, so building in these types of safeguards is an effective way to save time and money during the installation process.

View of the exposed beams which will soon form the upward-curving awning.

View of the awning, partially clad in its finished stainless steel surface.

CAD-view of the Hunter Interior Staircase, with rendered ZEPPS® Components.

View of the Hunter Interior Staircase in CAD, with rendered skin surface.

View of the Hunter Museum interior staircase after completion.

Unique lines made by the interior stainless steel wall-panels.

Geometric zinc panels on the Hunter Museum.

Winding path to the entrance of the Hunter Museum.

Stainless steel and Zinc surfaces visible from the Tennessee River bluff.

Hoover Garage

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Parking Structure Stanford--California WRNS Studio Gold L 2014 /by cmorris

HOOVER GARAGE AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY

In 2013, Zahner began working on a third project with WRNS Studio, the San Francisco architecture firm whose designs have played a transformative role on the parking garage typology.

The Hoover Garage parking structure is part of the Stanford Hospital and Clinics and was produced in association with Stanford University in California. The Hoover Parking Garage at Stanford University is a 1,100 stall garage which serves the Hoover Pavilion, a new medical office building for the University.

Hoover Garage is an open-air structure which uses a 3/16′ perforated and anodized aluminum surface. The back-side of the panels are cut and grooved at each corner of the panel to provide a more defined edge. The panels use a proprietary Drop & Lock panel technology, a feature of the Inverted Seam patent. This allows for flexible design and simple installation. Each panel is hung by inserts into the vertical extrusion.

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Mission Bay Parking

Located in the Mission Bay Block 27 of San Francisco, this design by WRNS Studio for Alexandria Real Estate, 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.

The perforated metal panel screen system at Stanford University Parking Garage.

The perforated metal panel's shadow creates a moire effect against the building's surface.

Perfectly Perforated

Over the early 1990's, patterned usage of perforated metal began to appear. At the time, the pattern were limited by programming. It wasn't until the early two-thousands, when Herzog & de Meuron designed the de Young Museum, that perforated metal would truly enter into its own.

Hoover Parking structure at dusk on the Stanford University Campus.

Developing the Design for the Hoover Garage

Zahner provided design assist as well as fabrication services to the general contractor Vance Brown Builders. While this was the first time Vance Brown and Zahner worked together, Zahner had a relationship with the architect as well as a well-known reputation for its successful track record on similar projects with WRNS Architects.

In addition to the perforated metal facade, Zahner also provided the vertical structure which allowed the design team to reduce the overall budget without changing the visual aesthetic.

In the original document, there was a vertical steel member between panels. The panels had a complex support system hanging off of the steel, so Zahner engineers introduced a custom extrusion that would reduce the redundancy. The architect selected the look of anodized aluminum extrusion Zahner provided over the painted steel.

Detail of the two-plane panel system used on the Stanford University Hoover Parking Structure.

Zahner designed, milled, and machined all of the connection points on the custom aluminum extrusions, which were provided to the steel contractor to install prior to installation of the Zahner perforated panels. This improved the aesthetic and durability without adding additional cost.

Owning the aluminum vertical structure also simplified the dual planes of the panel system. Zahner was able to reduce the parts for how the second plane of panels connects to the structure.

The perforated panel creates a moire effect against its shadow on the building's surface.

Stanford University Parking Garage during construction.

Construction photo of the perforated metal panel screen system at Stanford University Parking Garage.

The engineers at Zahner and the architects at the WRNS office enjoy an integrated relationship that continues to evolve and push the boundaries of what is possible to design and build with parking structures. Learn more about the WRNS designs for which Zahner has built systems, including the Alexandria Parking Structure, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and the UCSF Parking Garage. See more projects completed by WRNS Studio with Zahner.

Pueblo Library

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Library Pueblo--Colorado Anderson Mason Dale, Antoine Predock Architect PC Black, Violet L 2003 /by cmorris

Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library

The Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library in Pueblo, Colorado is an Antoine Predock-designed building featuring Zahner fabrication. The library is a new construction project which provides 109,000 SF of facility for residents of the Colorado town.

Built on the site of the original library, the design by Predock rises five stories to allow view of surrounding mountains and the Arkansas Valley. The building incorporates portions of the existing library and spans across Bates Lane to additional property to the South.

Zahner provided the interior and exterior copper metalwork with a preweathered patina. The building’s dark patinated copper tones allow it to absorb into its natural regional landscape.

Related Surface

Pueblo Library

Manufacturing Details for Pueblo Library

The copper wall panels made by Zahner are 30 inches wide by 142 inches tall and number 1545 wall panels and 739 soffit. The building elevations were completely laid out as a digital model for accurate layout of custom panel expansion joints.

A total of 1,545 wall panels and 739 soffit panels were provided by Zahner. The copper panels were custom manufactured from 1.5mm thick copper plates and installed using the Inverted Seam Wall System.

The facade is clad in a darkened custom patinated panel system using the Dirty Penny patina on copper, an artistic patina with significant variation.

Highland Park Center

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Civic Minneapolis--Minnesota LSE Architects S 2015 /by cmorris

Highland Park Community Center Signage

Highland Park Community Center of Minneapolis hired LSE Architects to create a design for its new addition. Zahner was brought into the project to provide the building’s artistic signage system. The goal of the project was to create a signage system which both state the title of the community center, and also relates to the surrounding community and region.

To meet this challenge, LSE Architects provided imagery of the meandering Mississippi River from a birds-eye view where it crosses the city. This landmark was overlapped with several sections of street layout for the city itself.

The custom image perf was made using ImageWall by Zahner, whose team worked with the designers to create its unique signage. The project used minimal fabrication with no brakes or further fabrication, each the perforated panels were face-fastened onto a steel subframe.

Detail of the perforated metal signage for Highland Park Community Center.

The design was made using 1/8” aluminum with an Angel Hair finish. The artwork spans approximately 12’ x 24’ and consists of twenty seamless panels. Zahner’s Angel Hair surface was developed to soften the high reflectivity of standard finishes of stainless steel making it a perfect choice for signage.

How to Create Image-based Perforation on Metal

The designers used an image graphic created using photo-editing tools to create their design. This was uploaded into the ImageWall software, which gave the designers control over the look and feel of the final product before setting up a purchase order.

ImageWall is based on the ZIRA patented technology (Zahner Interpretive Relational Algorithm). Working with the ImageWall team, designers can create translate their imagery into perforations, bumps, and unique cutouts that can then be embossed and perforated into a selected metal. The image is not restricted to text or shapes but can be photographs as well. ImageWall allows the customer to design and experiment with specifications while being given a real time estimate.

Related System

Highland Park Center

Highland Park Community Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Highland Park Community Center signage, photographed at Dusk.

Detail of the ImageWall Perforated Metal Signage used for Highland Park in Minnesota.

Detail of the ImageWall Metal Perf on Highland Park Community Center.

Highland Park Community Center Signage perforation pattern detail.

Highland Park Community Center and Library with ImageWall pixel-mosaic generated metal signage.

Harold Washington Library

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Library Chicago--Illinois Hammond-- Beeby and Babka Kent Bloomer, Raymond Kaskey Green L 1991 /by cmorris

Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago, Illinois

Rising amidst the iconic buildings of Chicago, the Harold Washington Library stands 10 stories high and has been noted as one of the largest libraries in the United States. The architects responsible for the building, Hammond, Beeby and Babka are known for producing designs which employ modernism with historical allusion, often described as belonging to the postmodern movement of design.

Zahner’s involvement on the project was in regards to the architectural forms and building cornices designed by artists Kent Bloomer and Raymond Kaskey. These works form the iconic figurehead of the building, a modern take on the gargoyle iconography and the flourishes of baroque sculptures in patinated copper tones. However, the sculptures produced were actually manufactured using contemporary materials, plates of aluminum, riveted and finished with a polyester finish in the traditional verdigris tone.

The aluminum leaf forms and steel cornice railing are each powder coated with a green-toned polyester finish. Zahner provided the larger forms of these acroterion, using a foam placeholder for the smaller sculptures welded to these artworks. The animal sculptures were produced by the artist studio, and attached by Zahner.

Harold Washington Library photographed in 2015, twenty-five years after manufacturing.

Architectural forms for Harold Washington Library in the Zahner shop.

A shipment of the cornices for Harold Washington Library leaves the Zahner shop.

The aluminum cornices for the Harold Washington Library in Chicago, Illinois.

A foam placeholder stands in for the cast owl acroterion sculpture prior to installation.

A single panel of the Harold Library cornices at the painter.

Gulf Islands

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Residential Vancouver BC AA Robins Brown, Orange, Red M 2012 /by cmorris

Gulf Islands Residence, Pacific Northwest

With jutting lines of burnt umber flying across the horizon, this remote single-family house is situated in rocky southern shores of the Pacific Ocean near Vancouver, British Colombia. Tony Robins of AA Robins Architect took on this 6,500 sq ft cladded challenge as lead architect and gave this hidden gem a contemporary style reminiscent of the modern sculptor Alexander Calder.

The exterior and interior cladding of the home is done primarily with A. Zahner Company’s trademarked patina, Solanum Steel weathering steel. This pre-weathered steel surface provides a vibrant and warm color to complement the surrounding blue ocean and sky. Comparative to raw weathering steel, Solanum Steel offers a stable surface which reduces runoff from the natural patina on its surface.

Related Surface

Gulf Islands

The Solanum Steel exterior of the Gulf Islands Residence appears bright umber in the afternoon light.

Photo of the interior Solanum Steel application. Light flows through the perforations on metal's surface.

Zahner engineered a CAD layout of the panels on the Gulf Islands Residence.

Fabricating the Weathered Steel Facade

The only way to reach this island is by taking a ferry directly from Vancouver, traveling through the narrow passage separating Mayne Island and Galiano Island. Because traveling to the house is an adventure of itself, the structural modules that make up the house had to be prefabricated, shipped over by ferry, and driven up the site on 23 trucks. Zahner provided the Solanum Steel pre-weathered sheets to local fabricators.

The design has many interior elements that bring the modern edge inside such as skylights framed with red steel beams, giant glass walls, and high windows hidden by the perforated Solanum Steel surface. The high windows are hidden so the rock-shaped perforations can cast light onto the adjacent wall adding a playful pattern to the room throughout the day. This same perforated pattern can be seen with the powder-coated aluminum on the edge of the infinity pool that is equipped with a waterslide.

This residence at Gulf Islands evokes the ebb and flow of its surrounding landscape. To learn more about Zahner’s custom patinas, see the surfaces page of the website, or contact Zahner about developing a custom patina to fit the needs of your project.

Grace Farms

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture LEED, Worship Center New Canaan--Connecticut, Northeastern United States Handel Architects, SANAA Silver L 2015 Featured /by cmorris

The River at Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut

Descending into a valley at Grace Farms in New Canaan Connecticut, The River consists of five volumes linked together by a single curving roof. SANAA designed the project with Handel Architects serving as the executive architect. The new building provides a sanctuary, library, court, commons, and pavilion, all under an aluminum roof by Zahner.

Zahner’s Design Assist team was brought into the project for their expertise in engineering and manufacturing systems for custom building envelopes. The panel system provides a subtle dual curvature, and yet consists of standard-sized sheets of exterior anodized aluminum. Zahner developed the roof in close collaboration with the architects, who provided feedback and requirements for its aesthetic performance.

“Our goal with the River is to make the architecture become part of the landscape. We hope that those who are on the property will have a greater enjoyment of the beautiful environment and changing seasons through the spaces and experience created by the River.”
— Sharon Prince, Grace Farms Foundation President.

The River at Grace Farms, in New Canaan, Connecticut

The building's reflective roof appears as a river below the feet of visitors on the hill.

Roof detail for Grace Farms, designed by SANAA.

The River at Grace Farms, exterior anodized aluminum.

Wood panel ceiling provides a canopy for The River at Grace Farms

A landscape painter at Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut.

The Sanctuary at Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut.

The River at Grace Farms, New Canaan, Connecticut

Profile of the roof detail at Grace Farms.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

The building's wooden soffit provides a contrast to its reflective aluminum roof.

Grace Farms roof winds its way up the hill.

Grace Farms roof has a warm soffit manufactured in wood.

Creating the Grace Farms dual-curving serpentine Roof

To achieve dual curvatures and other complex shapes, many roof systems use ZEPPS, a Zahner system for achieving sculptural forms in architecture. However, for the Grace Farms project, the dual curvatures of the roof were subtle and didn’t require dramatic curves. So the engineering team at Zahner developed a light-weight system to achieve the shape, without the need for a custom ZEPPS specification.

The roof system was made by the use of several custom aluminum extrusions. These form a channel system between the aluminum skins. Within this channel, a floating aluminum plate snaps into place, which provides a smooth visual transition between the aluminum panels.

Details of the Grace Farms roof system during construction

One of the economic advantages of this custom roof system, is that it allowed for the use of a standard-sized aluminum plate, 20′ in length. The only custom roof panels required are along the roof’s edge, which were cut at custom angles to provide the roof’s contoured edge.

Zahner field installers were also involved in putting together the system, and provided feedback to the engineering team in Kansas City. The system was also simple to install, and provided flexibility for the field operators who put it together — flexibility without sacrificing aesthetics.

Detail of the panels to create the dual curve roof on Grace Farms.

Installers place the structural steel supports for the Grace Farms roof.

The decision to allow the the aluminum roof panels to overhang the building’s edge created an intriguing aesthetic effect. Because of the way that the aluminum interfaces with the building’s edge, the spacing between panels becomes visible against the sky above. This void between panels is further accentuated by the shadows that they cast along the soffit. The shadow provides a kind of sun dial, creating diagonal marks across the building’s profile, visible in many of the photographs of the building.

The sliver of light which passes between the panel’s void provides a unique aesthetic effect, appearing as a sharp diagonal line between the shadows. This sunbeam’s angle changes as the sun passes across the sky.

Installers lay the panels to create the dual curve roof on Grace Farms.

Grace Farms was designed by SANAA with Handel Architects as its architect of record. Sciame managed the project, and Zahner engineering and manufactured the exterior roof system, coordinating the enclosure system with Dahill who provided the waterproofing for the roofing components.