Interior Architecture

Issey Miyake

August 15, 2016/in Interior Architecture Flagship, Retail & Commerce New York City Frank Gehry Partners, G TECTS Silver S 2001 /by cmorris

Issey Miyake Tribeca, in Titanium

Issey Miyake Tribeca is a retail store for the Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake designed by Gordon Kipping (G TECTS) with Frank Gehry in a historic cast-iron warehouse building. Located in in the Tribeca neighborhood of lower Manhattan, the store integrates a sculptural titanium ceiling and wall system designed by Frank Gehry Partners as a center piece, extending from a shaft emerging from the cellar floor into a turbulent swirl engulfing the ceiling of the ground floor retail space.
Zahner worked for Kipping and Gehry to produce undulating forms and structural support system for this high fashion store in New York City. Hand-formed and machine-formed Titanium panels were attached to the support system, a complex curving tubed branching form which runs throughout the store and can be seen in several detail shots below.

Related Surface

Issey Miyake

Titanium is a notoriously difficult surface to work with. The material has incredible memory, which is why it’s been re-branded as a smart metal for high-end eye-glasses. In construction, the difficulty with it’s memory is that it wants to revert to a flat form. It also has a much harder huge tensile capacity, which enables it to take greater loads, but also makes it difficult to form.

For the Miyake project, Zahner engineered a flexible system which allowed the Architects to join the installers in New York. Custom-engineered machined stainless steel rotation points gave the metal sheet forms a large degree of leniency. Together the architects and installers manipulated the metal into their desired forms, referencing the fashion displayed on the store’s ground floor and lower level.

Interior surfaces of the Issey Miyake Store in Tribeca, New York City.

Curving titanium drop ceiling at Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Detail of the downstairs basement floor of Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Interior titanium surfaces at the Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Installation process at Issey Miyake Tribeca.

CAD layout for the steel pipe armatures which support the cascading titanium.

The above images show the Miyake Project during construction and the CAD rendering of the structural tubing which the entire sculpture is hooked into. The tubed system as well as the metal surface were developed collaboratively between the architects and the Design Assist Team at Zahner.

The images below are from Gordon Kipping, showing the architect with the artists and fashion designers involved in the project. Also shown are the initional sketches as well as the photographed result of Frank Gehry’s Tornado installation in the Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Video art capture of the designer, the architect, and the artist of the Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Frank Gehry Sketch of the Tornado design for the Issey Miyake Tribeca.

Instructional Centre

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Education, LEED Toronto--Canada Perkins + Will Blue, Charcoal, Green L 2011 /by cmorris

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.

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.

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.

Guggenheim Hermitage Museum

August 15, 2016/in Art & Sculpture, Interior Architecture Museum Las Vegas--Nevada OMA, REX Architecture Brown M 2002 /by cmorris

The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas

The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum was designed by Rem Koolhaus and Joshua Prince-Ramus of OMA as a center for Impressionist Art.

Zahner developed a preweathered patina on weathering steel for the gallery walls. The materials was used to create five-thousand square feet of wall space for the historic artworks. This preweathered steel material was used throughout the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum.

Today the weathering steel material is known as Solanum Steel, and uses a steel alloy which has replaced COR-Ten in popular usage. Many areas of the gallery were clad in this material, and served as a unique tone to back the acclaimed artworks of the nineteenth century.

Related Surface

Guggenheim Hermitage Museum

Three of the walls clad in Zahner’s Solanum Steel were engineered to rotate, allowing curators to change the size and proportion of the four intermediary spaces within seconds. The wood floor and ceiling were produced using a finished maple surface.

A museum installer places a custom-magnet wall connection to hang a painting.

The Solanum Steel surface is a durable steel surface whose iron content enables magnetic properties. For this reason, the gallery opted for magnetic connections to the artworks, which meant that artworks could be easily installed and de-installed with minimal effort and clean-up. All of the paintings were hung from custom-made magnets, able to withstand several hundred pounds of vertical load.

The museum closed its doors in 2008 and was re-opened as an automobile museum. Zahner has since worked with OMA and REX (Ramus) on projects such as the Wyly Theatre in Dallas.

Gates Hall at Cornell

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Education, LEED Ithaca--New York Morphosis Orange, Silver L 2014 /by cmorris

Bill & Melinda Gates Hall at Cornell University

Gates Hall is a new computer science building for students of Cornell in Ithaca, New York. Designed by Morphosis Architects, the building features Zahner custom systems for the soffit, interior entry foyer, and exterior facade. The building, named for Bill & Melinda Gates, is a dedicated building for Cornell University’s Computing and Information Science (CIS) program.

The project’s facade is designed using generative processes developed by Morphosis. Its unique appearance also serves the building’s environment performance, reducing heat gain while providing natural light into the offices and classrooms.

The complex facade appears to be made up of unique parts, but there are several typical forms which are cleverly spaced to give the appearance that each part is unique. This technique of using the negative space to create complex visuals is a hallmark of the architecture firm’s genius, and can be seen on other Morphosis projects such as Emerson College LA and Bloomberg Center.

Related Project

Emerson LA

Working with Zahner's Design Assist team of engineers, designers and fabricators, this generative design was developed for manufacturing. A team of Zahner installers completed the project in Los Angeles, providing the campus with a visually compelling, efficiently envisioned, and rapidly completed building envelope system.

Zahner worked with Morphosis to optimize the frame panel system, reducing it to the fewest number of components. By switching from bulky hollow frames to a combination of angles and plates, Zahner minimized the leading edges and simplified its compound joint conditions, resulting in sharper lines and cleaner forms at a reduced cost.

Photograph of the Gates Hall main entrance and soffit system.

Metal panel system provide the building's offices with natural light and shading.

Field time and layout were reduced immensely by using a three-point attachment scheme and coordinating anchor locations beforehand, which were fabricated into the mullions. There are 450 total framed panels using 90 panel types, fabricated by Zahner for the facade. Each panel was pre-designated and automatically numbered with its specific location and pre-installed mullion incorporated anchor-tabs awaiting their arrival.

The facade project team included Zahner working directly with glass installer W&W to optimize the panel system. Thornton Tomasetti provided the structure’s engineering, and Welliver was the construction manager that coordinated and ensured the project’s success. The project team’s delivery of the angular sunshades should contribute to the building’s expected LEED Gold certification.

Reducing the cost of the Gates Hall facade with Design Assist

Because Zahner not only fabricates but also engineers its facades, Design Assist is often employed for complex facades such as Gates Hall at Cornell. By managing the project under a Design Assist contract, Zahner was able to refine the façade elements with Morphosis to arrive at a system that achieved the aesthetic intent and was streamlined for fabrication and installation.

Interior foyer with stainless steel entrance metalwork.

Detail of the exterior galvanized steel facade connection.

Detail of the orange-painted aluminum soffit system used on Gates Hall at Cornell University.

The design team members examine the Zahner mockup as part of the Design Assist contract.

Detail of the interior metalwork on the Gates Hall at Cornell.

Engineering rendering and construction photograph of the completed facade.

Using Zahner’s Design Assist process allowed Morphosis to hone the costs of their design while meeting its visual requirements. Once the design intent was solidified, Zahner clarified the forms, both aesthetically and functionally. This resulted in reduced waste and construction delays, as well as a reduction in the overall cost.

The facade was designed to create the illusion of movement through a series of rigid forms. By varying the shape and angle that panels integrated into the panel system, Morphosis was able to create smooth transitions across the surface. Each panel is mounted on a staggered galvanized steel frame, and skinned with perforated stainless steel.

The design team members overlook the window unit integration of the completed facade.

Gates Hall facade seen from the adjacent baseball field parking structure.

Photograph of students entering the overhanging panel at Gates Hall.

Detail of the custom metal panels used on Gates Hall at Cornell.

Building the Entrance Soffit

In addition to the building’s generative facade, Zahner also engineered and manufactured the bright orange soffit under the main entrance. The sloping curves of the painted aluminum soffit contrast against the angularities of its framed panels.

Zahner used the ZEPPS assemblies on the soffit to achieve this flowing surface. Systematic production of seven internal fin members per panel created the continuous curves and minimized the number of joints. Support members follow the profile of the soffit to ensure the efficiency of the final surface and optimal installation.

Zahner's soffit layout and design for the main entrance.

Photograph of orange-coated aluminum soffit panel system at Gates Hall.

Atrium at Gates Hall, shows the interior feature wall installed and fabricated by Zahner.

Detail of the shaded perforated metal panel system at Cornell's Science Center.

Student Lounge at Gates Hall, shaded by the perforated panel system by Zahner.

Building with Morphosis

Zahner has worked with Morphosis on several projects including Cooper Union and Clyde’s Wine and Dine in New York City, and the Eugene Federal Courthouse in Oregon, and Emerson LA in California. Because of these successful collaborations, Morphosis brought Zahner onboard during the planning stages to provide Design Assist.

FELIX

August 15, 2016/in Interior Architecture Hospitality, Restaurant Hong Kong Philippe Starck S 1994 /by cmorris

The Felix Restaurant at Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong

FELIX is an avant-garde bar and restaurant at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. Designed by Philippe Starck, the restaurant promises spectacular city views and dining that pushes the limits of culinary boundaries.

Starck’s quirky design necessitated customization on every level. Zahner provided stainless steel and zinc metalwork throughout the restaurant, including unique basket-woven zinc strip seating backs and stairwell cladding. A custom patinated zinc wall covering and hammered zinc skirting provide unique accents in the wine room and caviar bar.

The Semantic Metal Surface

When defining a logic to use a particular surface material, various aesthetic qualities such as color, texture, patterns and boundaries are often considered. In our pursuit to arrive at materials that perform over a lifetime and do not possess hidden cost to our children's future, considerations of manufacture and eventual recovery and recycling of the material must also play a part. Architectural metals achieve these design requirements. They are durable and lightweight. They can be formed, shaped, pierced, cut and machined in ways only plastics can attempt to copy.

Interior woven zinc surfaces at the Felix Hong Kong

Emerson LA

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Education, LEED Los Angeles--California Morphosis Silver, White L 2014 /by cmorris

Emerson College at Los Angeles, California

Emerson College LA is designed by Morphosis with a series of custom facade systems design-engineered, manufactured, and installed by Zahner. The new Emerson College campus in Los Angeles provides a landmark for film and performing arts students of the Boston-based college to study in an immersive environment. The innovative design by the esteemed architects at Morphosis provides an integrated and efficient experience for both visitors and students.

Working with Zahner’s Design Assist team of engineers, designers and fabricators, this generative design was developed for manufacturing. A team of Zahner installers completed the project in Los Angeles, providing the campus with a visually compelling, efficiently envisioned, and rapidly completed building envelope system.

The project was certified LEED Gold in 2014.

Related Project

Gates Hall at Cornell

The project's facade is designed using generative processes developed by Morphosis. Its unique appearance also serves the building's environment performance, reducing heat gain while providing natural light into the offices and classrooms.

View of Emerson College at Los Angeles from across Sunset Boulevard.

Entrance stairs to the Emerson College at Los Angeles.

View of Sunset Blvd and Hollywood Hills through the piazza stairway at Emerson LA.

Evening photograph of Emerson LA, featuring a view of the complex undulating surface created by Zahner.

Photo detail of the louvered display during at the Emerson LA Campus..

Additional aluminum metalwork in the main gathering areas at Emerson LA.

View of the exterior hallway at Emerson College Los Angeles.

Photographs of the mockup, revealing the corridor which cuts through the facade.

Building the Emerson College at Los Angeles

Zahner was brought onto the project based on previous work with the architects on projects such as Cooper Union New Academic Building in New York City, Eugene Federal Courthouse in Oregon, Gates Hall at Cornell and also an interior project which may have been the first Morphosis project to feature this kind of generative design, Clyde Frazier’s Wine & Dine in New York City.

The generative design of its scrim isn’t the only aspect of engineering and manufacture that Zahner worked on for the project. Zahner’s scope of work included both the engineered aluminum scrim wall as well as the dual-curvature forms contained within the building’s square structure.

At the building’s core is a complex form which contains many of the presentation rooms, classrooms and administrative spaces. To create the complex form with Morphosis, engineers used ZEPPS, the Zahner building process for creating sculptural forms. ZEPPS provides a secondary structural facade system which allowed the architects to efficiently put together an otherwise complex form.

Color-coded rendering of the ZEPPS panel layout design.

ZEPPS works by breaking a complex form into smaller assemblies. These assemblies are typically sized based on the shipping container or truck trailer size. The curving form at the building’s center was made using this process.

Photograph showing both the ZEPPS forms as well as the generative facade design.

The mockup for Emerson LA at the Zahner Headquarters in Kansas City.

Detail of the Emerson LA facade against Hollywood Hills in California.

Photograph of the Emerson LA Campus at night.

Rendering of the Morphosis-designed Emerson LA Campus.

Preliminary sketch by Thom Mayne of Morphosis for Emerson LA.

Denny’s Flagship

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Flagship, Furniture, Restaurant Las Vegas--Nevada James Wines Yellow M 2012 /by cmorris

Denny’s Flagship Diner in Las Vegas

Wrapped in a yolk-yellow nest of painted aluminum cantilevered ribbons, the Denny’s Flagship acts as a bright yellow beacon even at the center of 3 miles of neon lights. Denny’s executives are calling it the ‘Diner of the Future’.

James Wines of SITE in New York was chosen to lead the design of the rebranded Denny’s Flagship Diner. The team wanted to create a striking surface with visual intrigue to mark a transformation of the Denny’s brand. Zahner’s Design Assist Group worked with James Wines’ team of architects, designers, and executives to arrive at a custom formed aluminum surface. This material was shaped and then painted to create an undulating wave of yellow.

The undulating wall appears to emerge from the flat plane. Curving lace-work falls back to the surface in an unbroken, seamless manner. This is the Denny’s of the future.

Photograph of the completed Denny's Flagship Diner / Early rendering of the desgin.

Building a New Brand for Dennys

Over the years, Zahner has played a role in the architectural rebranding for various flagship properties such as Nike, Diesel, and Burberry. More than simply producing the facades specified by the designers specify, the Zahner team offers an exploration of materials and processes, employing artistic and technical innovation to their fabrication expertise. For the Denny’s Flagship Diner, Zahner provided the architects with a tailored R&D experience.

This process usually occurs as the project begins during Design Assist. The Design Assist contract provides the design team with ways to reduce the project’s cost, improve efficiency, and explore processes that can meet the Designer’s expectations with ingenuity.

Preliminary project sketches by James Wines.

Zahner mockup tower shows Denny's prototype adjacent to the Basra Stadium mockup.

Close-up of the Denny's Flagship metalwork in Las Vegas.

Details shows the custom milled interlocking metalwork on the facade-testing tower.

Denny's Flagship Diner in Las Vegas on Fremont Street.

Fabricating the Denny’s Facade

The intricate metal surface was water jet cut using a pattern provided by the architects. The pieces were all pre-assembled in the Zahner shop. Zahner produced the facade to meet code requirements and added concealed joinery for visual aesthetic. Where exposed bolts were used, a custom milled interlocking system was implemented to provide visually seamless connections. The surfaces were painted locally using a bright yellow painted finish to match the Denny’s corporate branding.

The building began fabrication in July 2012 and was completed in November 2012. Working to promote James Wine’s vision, the Zahner team helping bring the design to life.

Column covers at the Zahner shop during fabrication.

Denny’s Flagship Diner in Las Vegas on Fremont Street.

Images courtesy SITE | Matthew Gindlesperger.

de Young Museum

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Museum San Francisco Bay Fong & Chan Architects, Herzog & de Meuron Brown, Gold, Green, Red XL 2005 /by cmorris

M. H. de Young Memorial 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 throughout the exterior. This included near 8000 unique facade panels — the collective whole which formed patterns of light as seen through trees. This was the first iteration of the Zahner Interpretive Relational Algorithmic Process, or the ZIRA Process.

“

Craftsmanship in large buildings is supposed to be dead, killed by Modernist ideology and cost considerations. What this building says is that maybe craftsmanship has a high-tech future after all.

Time MagazineNone.

Aerial view of the de Young Museum in San Francisco, California

Aerial view of the de Young Museum roof.

Inverted Seam roof system and channel design for the de Young Museum roof

Outdoor cafe under the de Young Museum canopy awning

At the time, this mosaic algorithmic process was emerging, but was undeveloped in the use of perforated and embossed metal. Zahner assembled a team of software developers and engineers to assist in this technological advancement.

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. ZIRA technology was developed to streamline 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.

Source imagery and installed panel system for the ‘Children’s Entry’ at the de Young Museum.

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.

“

… A sensual copper skin that will evolve over time.

Sarah Amelarauthor, Architectural Record..

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.

De Young Museum cover feature in Architectural Record

The November, 2005 issue of "Architectural Record" magazine has placed the New de Young Museum on their cover and, in a section devoted to museum projects around the world [pages 104—115].

Patina transition over time on the de Young Museum

Zahner helped to guide this decision for the client. Understanding how copper alloys weather over time, and understanding the integrity and durability of the material is key to its selection process. Zahner brought the clients into the fold of this knowledge, educating the design team on how over the next few decades, the copper facade and roof would transition from its bright golden red, to a dark brown, to a black, and finally, after a decade or more, it will slowly emerge into earthy greens.

In clean air environments — which San Francisco generally has great air quality — this process can take much longer. Copper oxidizes quickly in polluted areas. In cleaner environments, this process could take twenty to thirty years.

The following information is a snapshot of the building statistics:

Area of copper panels on the building: 129,900 square feet of copper panels.
Area of copper on the roof cladding: 55,500 square feet of copper panels and 6,500 linear feet of custom battens.
Area of copper on the tower: 33,218 square feet of copper panels.
Number of panels — Main building: 5,757; Roof: 3,513; Tower: 1,845.
Number of perforations — Building: 920,699; Tower: 803,229
There are approximately 1,500,000 bumps of the surface. This includes the four levels of bumps that go in and four levels that come out. These bumps, along with the flat plane, results in nine different levels of surface texture.
Pounds of copper utilized. . .1,121,992. This translates too. . .2,201 cubic feet or 1 sheet of copper that is 1 meter wide by 21.6 miles long.
The 70,000 pounds of the custom alloy, custom bronze extrusions utilized for the tower system were also designed and engineered by Zahner.