Las Vegas--Nevada

Ridges Residence

The Ridges Residence in Las Vegas, Nevada

The Ridges Residence is a private home featuring Zahner-manufactured interior metal artwork designed by Make Studios. Located in The Ridges, a neighborhood of Las Vegas, the project includes a carbon-steel perforated wall art feature which Zahner provided as a supply-only to Make Studios.

Working collaboratively with Zahner’s ImageWall team, the designers and artists at Make Studios worked with Blue Heron to develop a “Carbon Canvas” concept, showcasing artistic imagery through perforated metal. The owner of the residence had a fondness for the city of Pittsburgh, so the artwork shows a aerial view of the city’s downtown area. The artwork is manufactured in a designer-specified alloy of hot-rolled steel, a material long associated with the Pennsylvania city.

The carbon-steel alloy was manufactured by Zahner using ImageWall. The custom perforated steel surface was then delivered and installed by Make Studios, and coated in tung oil. The artwork is recessed in the living room and kitchen area of the interior residential project.

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Ridges Residence

Interior view of the Ridges Residence artwall.

CVS Las Vegas

December 9, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Flagship, Retail & Commerce, Storefront Las Vegas--Nevada Jacobs Grey, Silver L 2016 /by cmorris

CVS Pharmacy at Bally’s Casino

CVS Pharmacy at Bally’s Casino in Las Vegas is a unique flagship store designed by Jacobs featuring a custom structural facade system by Zahner.

In a city known for its flamboyant neon and kitsch architectural statements, this Las Vegas Boulevard stands on its own, while making a marked departure from the local architecture.

The design for this project may have some of the most uniquely powerful branding and signage that the city has yet to see (and this is Las Vegas). The CVS Pharmacy at Bally’s Casino has a signage system whose reflective letters provide an eye-catching animated effect for cars and passersby. This innovative signage system is the result of weeks of design charettes, and several months of engineering and fabrication.

CVS Pharmacy at Bally's, Las Vegas

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

What makes the signage system intriguing is its clever illusion, a result of the design’s collaborative process. Jacobs, the architects behind the project, brought Zahner in as a design assist contract to develop a branded sign system. Using a combination of LED backlighting, selective polishing, and algorithmic perforations, the team developed a unique concept and produced a mockup.

The mockup was produced in Kansas City, and was shown and inspected by the project team. The team used the mockup to identify any issues with the fabrication, and then began manufacturing the piece for delivery in Las Vegas.

Mockup for the CVS Pharmacy in Las Vegas.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

The mockup provided valuable feedback into the structural design, giving the Zahner engineering team insights into moving forward on the actual construction. The full-size mockup also provides the designers and clients with an accurate vision of the letter’s clarity.

After this phase one design and mockup process, the project moved into fabrication and installation. Zahner provided both the architectural exposed structural steel (AESS) as well as the stainless steel panel system.

In all there were 182 assemblies and 9000 SF of 304 stainless steel produced for the project. The skin of this uses a 14ga material. The parts were manufactured as part of a custom fabricated rain screen panel with factory applied ZIRA / ImageWall pattern.

All of the exterior visible surfaces have a Glass Bead matte finish with the exception of the brand’s logos, which are polished to a mirror finish. The project’s 182 assemblies are each slightly curved, and supported by an aluminum support strut located outside of the weather wall.

Detail of the stainless steel panels for CVS pharmacy, Las Vegas

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

DETAIL OF THE STAINLESS STEEL PANELS FOR CVS PHARMACY, LAS VEGAS

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

CVS PHARMACY AT BALLY’S CASINO, LAS VEGAS

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY

CVS PHARMACY AT BALLY’S CASINO, LAS VEGAS

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY

Treasure Island

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Entertainment Las Vegas--Nevada YWS Architects Brown, Gold, Silver M 2005 /by cmorris

Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas

Designed by YWS Architects of Las Vegas, Nevada, Zahner provided the engineering and fabrication of two large winged stainless steel elements at the northeast side entry of the casino. These ‘wings’ are constructed of steel tubing and aluminum ZEPPS Components, and were clad with an aluminum sheet sub-surface and then finished with stainless steel skins.

Each of the wings were finished with a different alloy of stainless steel, to create a color distinction between the two. The east wing was finished using a brushed stainless steel surface. The west wing with PVD coated stainless steel panels for a copper hue.

The project uses Ti-Stainless or PVD Coated Stainless, a high-performance surface that can be used to achieve gold, copper, bronze, and brass tones in stainless steel. The material is now available to the architectural community, and has a longer lifespan than similar metals such as anodized aluminum.

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Treasure Island

Building the Treasure Island Winged Entrance

The project was an early use of the ZEPPS Process for building complex curvilinear forms. Each of the forms was defined digitally and manufactured at Zahner in Kansas City. The forms were each clad using flat-seam panels.

ZEPPS™ Panel understructure for Treasure Island wings.

View of Treasure Island's pipe understructure.

The Treasure Island panels arrive at the job site in Las Vegas.

View of Treasure Island after Aluminum sub-surface has been secured.

The panels are packed onto delivery trucks to ship to Las Vegas.

Treasure Island in CAD, showing the square pipe understructure.

The ZEPPS™ Panels are installed on the Treasure Island entrance.

View of Treasure Island after substantial completion.

Each wing is approximately 32′ tall. The units were constructed in Kansas City and transported to Las Vegas for erection. Zahner has produced multiple structures and surfaces in Las Vegas.

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.

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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.

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.