Silver | Zahner

New England Aquarium

New England Aquarium in Boston

Founded in 1967, the New England Aquarium in Boston set a precedent for many future aquariums. Its urban waterfront setting served as a tourist destination, while providing an educational resource to its community and region. The original building was designed by Cambridge Seven, providing site planning, architecture, exhibit design, and all interior design for the original New England Aquarium building.

In 1996, Zahner worked for Schwartz/Silver Architects to provide the building’s new western wing. The glass and steel addition includes the harbor seal exhibit on the public plaza, ticketing booth, changing exhibit galleries, gift shop, cafe, and lobby. Zahner provided custom stainless steel “fishscale” metal panels using custom wheel finish.

The new facility is a distinct addition to the old concrete building, celebrating its harbor-side location with stainless steel and glass additions. The shiny surfaces reference both the scales of sea creatures as well as moving water and its reflectivity.

Echo Dynamics

December 30, 2016/in Art & Sculpture Passive Security, Sculpture Little Rock--Arkansas Mikyoung Kim Silver L 2007 /by cmorris

ECHO DYNAMICs Public Art at Little Rock Courthouse

Echo Dynamics is a public artwork and water feature designed by Mikyoung Kim and manufactured with Zahner fabrication. The artwork is in front of the Federal Courthouse for the Eastern District of Arkansas and the United States District Court.

Mikyoung Kim Design introduced a concept which would provide a unique aesthetic to the building’s entrance, while also solving a security concern for the building. The artwork is both a fountain and a planter which protects the building using passive security from the street face of the park. Zahner worked with Mikyoung Kim to develop the concept as a stainless steel fountain, providing coordination with structural engineer, fountain consultant and mechanical contractor.

The green space provides a refuge from the urban downtown and the sculpture offers an invitation to pedestrians to utilize this place. Made using 14ga and 16ga stainless steel, the horizontal fountain allows water to flow through a series of descending troughs. Zahner supplied the welded coupling connection to mechanical plumbing as specified by Dan Euser Water Architecture.

Related Project

Arkansas House

The residential project's interior wood and metal surfaces act as an interior liner to the building's rough-to-the-touch Solanum Steel exterior architectural monitors. Flooring of rift-sawn cherry and walnut also act to form an interior liner. Taut and highly crafted, this refined surface acts as an interior liner to the exterior monitors clad in weathering steel shingles.

Maggie’s Centre

December 30, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Healthcare, Hospitality Dundee--United Kingdom, Europe, International Frank Gehry Partners Silver M 2003 /by cmorris

Maggie’s Centre in Dundee, Scotland

Architect Frank Gehry’s first building completed in the United Kingdom, Maggie’s Dundee is a unique building featuring Zahner metalwork. The facility serves cancer patients in Scotland, and provides a caring environment for the patients and families during recovery.

Maggie’s Dundee is among the first of the centers designed and built for Maggie Keswick Jencks, who died of breast cancer in 1995. Jencks dreamed of a place where cancer patients could be treated as human beings, a center built around a kitchen, with books and caring staff. She never lived to see this dream realized. After her passing, her husband, architectural critic Peter Jencks, played a key role in commissioning and advocating the first center in

The Centre in Dundee, Scotland is the third such center. Designed by Frank Gehry Partners, the architect donated his services and the project was completed in 2003. Today there are over a dozen Maggie’s Centres all over the United Kingdom, designed by architects from Zaha Hadid to Daniel Libeskind.

This project involves a labyrinth in the structures front yard, and an elaborately curved stainless steel roof. Zahner donated labor and fabricated the stainless steel roof at cost, which was then shipped to Scotland and installed by local labor. The project was completed in the same year as Bard College, also produced by Frank Gehry Partners with Zahner.

Maggie's Dundee in Scotland, United Kingdom

Trinity Sculpture

December 30, 2016/in Art & Sculpture, Interior Architecture Sculpture Shawnee Mission--Kansas Dierk Van Keppel Blue, Silver M 2009 /by cmorris

Interior Sculpture for Shawnee Mission Medical Center

A massive interior sculpture adorns the new atrium for Shawnee Mission Medical Center in greater Kansas City, Missouri. Zahner fabricated and installed the large-scale mobile, a metal and glass artwork conceived by Dierk Van Keppel.

The glass fixtures were cast and blown by Rock Cottage Glass, the art-glass studio of Dierk Van Keppel. Entitled Trinity Sculpture, the project was commissioned by the Shawnee Mission Medical Center. The aluminum and stainless steel by Zahner was manufactured by Zahner to encase the inset glass pieces by Keppel.

Related Project

H&R Block Installation

Zahner worked in both an art fabricator capacity, as well as a collaborator to Dierk Van Keppel. Keppel used glass blowing and fusing to create a number of fused glass pieces in flat form.

Fresno City Hall

December 30, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Government Fresno--California Arthur Erickson, Lew & Patnaude Architects Silver XL 1992 /by cmorris

Fresno City Hall in Historic Fresno, California

The Fresno City Hall, designed by Arthur Erickson, features a number of Zahner-manufactured systems throughout the interior and exterior of the building. Developed with associate architects Lew & Patnaude and Edwin S. Darden & Associates, the building includes a massive stainless steel roof and facade with a muted finish provided by Zahner. The 300,000 SF structure is five stories high, and measures 66′ at its highest point.

Aluminum and stainless steel custom details can be seen throughout the interior and exterior. Zahner provided not only the exterior stainless steel metalwork, but also its interior stainless steel metalwork and staircase.

Related Project

Museum of Glass

Zahner produced the metalwork for the glass bridge as well as the massive cone which can be identified throughout the downtown area. The cone was manufactured in stainless steel diamond panel system which was attached to a ZEPPS structural framework, each made by Zahner.

The building includes a range of metal details provided by Zahner. The metal aspects of its building envelope, the custom columns at its rear entrance, various soffit and metal cladding, awnings, mullions, and transoms.

All of these metal components are designed and fabricated to endure the test of time. This building was completed in 1991, but the photographs below were taken in 2016, nearly thirty years after the project’s completion. The images are a testament to the durability and longevity of stainless steel.

Aerial photo of Fresno City Hall in Fresno, California.

An shaded walkway covers both the South and North (pictured) wings of the Fresno City Hall exterior.

Details of the metalwork for Fresno City Hall.

Bullnose stainless steel details, Fresno City Hall.

Custom mullion and soffit on Fresno City Hall.

Custom stainless steel column and light fixtures on the Northeast elevation of Fresno City Hall.

Stainless steel column systems for Fresno City Hall.

Custom stainless steel column-clad system for Fresno City Hall.

Custom bullnose mullion and soffit details.

Custom mullion details for the Fresno City Hall curtainwall.

Baron BMW Showroom

December 30, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Automotive Kansas City Cary Goodman, Gould Evans Associates Silver M, S 2000 /by cmorris

The Baron BMW Showroom in Merriam, Kansas was designed by Cary Goodman, principal at Gould Evans Goodman. Completed in 2000, the design features a wide range of custom metalwork developed with Zahner.

Zahner was brought into the project to manufacture the perforated aluminum custom railing and guardrail. The guardrail uses a custom square punch die and has a standard satin finish. Zahner constructed and installed the perforated handrail screens and associated decorative trim.

The plate aluminum system is an example of smaller-scale fabrication capabilities for Zahner engineers and fabricators in Kansas City.

Interior looking up at the Baron BMW Showroom in Merriam, Kansas

Detail of the aluminum metalwork at the Baron BMW Showroom

Custom guardrail screens in perforated aluminum

Detail of the handrail screens in square perf

Handrail screens with custom perforations in aluminum

Detail of the satin aluminum and leather handrail for Baron BMW in Merriam, Kansas

Cincinnati Tower

December 30, 2016/in Art & Sculpture Education, Monument, Sculpture Cincinnati--Ohio Machado & Silvetti Silver M 1997 /by cmorris

The Ronald F. Walker Tower at the University of Cincinnati

University of Cincinnati features an iconic tower designed by Machado Silvetti with Zahner-manufactured stainless steel. The monument acknowledges the contributions of the Sigma Sigma Fraternity. Machado Silvetti’s design provides an apex which represents both the University and the Sigma Sigma fraternity.

The tower has a number of symbolic aspects in its design. Its square base forms the letters U and C on alternating sides. Above these letters, the main wooden shafts rise in the form of hammers. These motifs reflect the fraternity’s motto, “The torch burns; the hammers ring.” At the top, a beam of light shines through a stylized stainless steel torch and changes colors through the use of a computer program.

Zahner was involved in various metal components, and the stainless steel perforated “flame” at the sculpture’s top. The fifty foot high permanent artwork was commissioned by The University of Cincinnati in 1998.

The tower establishes a formal entrance to the new Commons from University Avenue. As a placemark on the school’s campus, it marks a memorable place for the university community. To this end, employing a design technique of totemic origins, the design stacks varied elements that legibly symbolize the university and the fraternity. Firmly set on its cast in situ concrete base, the tower forms the university’s monogram, representing the institution’s foundational role.

Above, a shaft of dark wood, polished metal, and precast concrete convey the fraternity’s symbols, the hammer and the Greek letters — or labor and the culture of Occident. On top, a lantern of perforated stainless steel construction stands for enlightenment and knowledge, the ultimate goal of the school and its people.

Artists model of the Sigma Tower Sculpture

Related Project

Bowdoin Museum of Art

The new building entrance resembles a glass box on three sides, with the remaining portion clad in a Zahner fabricated naval brass with a custom bronze patina. The patinated metal panels continue from the exterior to the interior angled soffit, completing a dramatic entry for the museum’s 19th Century collection.

While the legibility of these symbols by those who belong to this community is important, the arcane opacity the tower produces in those who do not know or belong is equally important to us. The tower produces an effect in those who witness it — an enigmatic, strange, and perhaps even seductive effect. The shear result of form and materials and light longing to attain beauty is equally memorable.

Gaines Residence

December 26, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Renovation, Residential, Urban Design Columbia--Missouri J.E. Cundiff Black, Silver M 2001 /by cmorris

Gaines Residence in Columbia, Missouri

The Gaines Residence is a unique home design and renovation in Columbia Missouri which features Zahner metalwork throughout its interior and exterior. Designed by architect J.E. Cundiff, the residence uses two custom stainless steel surfaces: a hand-polished abrasive polish on stainless steel, and a black interference stainless steel with mirror polish. The mirror polish on the stainless steel is the highest polish available for stainless steel, a #9 polish.

Each of these custom surfaces are used sparingly and in alteration to provide elegant accents the the residence. Zahner was hired to provide each of these stainless steel fabricated elements, as well as the custom railing, tree grates, and interior metalwork and various metal scopes within the residence.

Rear porch of the Gaines Residence in Columbia, Missouri.

Black mirror interference stainless steel clads both the interior and exterior of the Gaines Residence

The residence is framed through stainless steel buttresses of each of thew two finishes. These views which frame the north and east profiles of the home.

The building started off as a renovation, but the design transformation was fairly radical. The living and dining rooms open up to the front terrace with redbud trees which rise through custom, stainless-steel tree grates.

“By the time we were done, there was one wall of the original main floor left… At first glance the structure appears to give a nod to Phillip Johnson, while experiencing the home suggests possibly more influence from Arthur C. Clarke,”
— Architect J.E. Cundiff discussing the Gaines Residence

Although technically a renovation, much of the original building was replaced. The project is majority new construction in innovative materials and custom fabrication. Expansive views of the surrounding forestry were created by using large glass, butt-glazed corners in many areas of the house.

Details of the Handrails for Gaines Residence

Custom tree gate planter for the tree surrounds at Gaines Residence

Architect's drawings of the Gaines Residence show north and east elevation

Detail of the custom guardrails for Gaines Residence

Custom metal and glass table for the Gaines Residence

NMSU Theatre

December 26, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Education, LEED, Performance Center Las Cruces--New Mexico Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture Silver M 2014 /by cmorris

Center for the Arts at New Mexico State University THEATRE

The Center for the Arts at NMSU Theatre is a design by Malcolm Holzman which includes a series of Zahner-manufactured custom railings. The new building is located at the corner of University Avenue and Espina Street.

The project, lead by Malcolm Holzman of Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture includes an earth-toned aesthetic with custom guardrail designs developed and manufactured by Zahner for the new performance and rehearsal center.

The three-story state of the art academic building is 59,000 gross square feet with a large performance space for theater and dance, which has an orchestra pit and trap room, orchestra level, two balconies and fly tower. The building also features a large rehearsal room, classrooms, office and back-of-the-house supporting areas.

Detail of the custom undulated steel curtains used on the Center for the Arts at NMSU.

Interior of the theater at NMSU Center for the Arts.

THE MARK AND STEPHANIE MEDOFF THEATRE

The building’s main auditorium, The Mark and Stephanie Medoff Theatre, is a 466-seat theater lined by 4 levels of balcony seating. These balconies were outfitted by Zahner using a metal curtain system developed for creating billowing aesthetics on a small scale.

INTERIOR BALCONY CUSTOM RAILINGS

Lining each of the theater’s balconies are a series of artistic guardrails developed with Zahner. These artistic guardrails served as a creative solution referencing the theater curtain. The design was developed with Zahner using the custom zinc-plated mesh, which was formed by hand and then stiffened using a galvanic cladding process.

EXTERIOR TERRACES CUSTOM RAILINGS

The building’s three exterior terraces are lined with the same custom guardrail design used for the interior balconies.

The building received a LEED Gold Certification. The New Mexico State University Center for the Arts was completed in 2012 for the New Mexico State Centennial.

Sport Stacks

December 16, 2016/in Art & Sculpture Kinetic Art, Public Art, Sculpture Cleveland--Ohio R.M. Fisher Silver L 1994 /by cmorris

Sport Stacks: Sculptures at Tower Park

Galvanized steel and stainless steel intertwines in this kinetic artwork made for artist Ron M. Fischer. The project was completed in 1994, and is located in Cleveland, Ohio at the Progressive Field Ballpark for the Cleveland Guardians.

The artworks are located on a pedestrian thoroughfare between the ballpark and the arena running along Ontario Street in downtown Cleveland.

Stainless steel clads the base and crowns the top of the Sport Stacks artwork. Lights are embedded into the tower structure, showing blue and gold which outline the tower’s shape. Polygonal in section, each tower has a large tapered base. The bases enclose utilities, vents, and an emergency staircase which emerges from an underground service area.

The towers contain blue and gold lights which enhance the form. The north tower is topped with a ubiquitous roof vent, which spins in the wind. On the south tower, a stationary crown tops the structure. Learn more about Zahner art fabrication for artists and collectors.