M | Zahner

Dolby Labs HQ

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

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

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

Design Assist helps achieve design intent

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

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

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

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

About Louvered ZIRA

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

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

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

Louvered perforated panels catch and direct sunlight.

Block 21 Hotel

January 16, 2017/in Exterior Architecture, Landscape Architecture Highrise, Hospitality, LEED Austin--Texas Andersson-Wise Architects Brown M 2014 /by cmorris

Block 21 W Hotel and Residences

The W Hotel and Residences complex is a new centerpiece for the city, occupying a prime location in the skyline framing Austin City Hall and Lady Bird Lake. The design by Andersson-Wise Architects includes a covered entry clad in Solanum Steel, a preweathered steel manufactured by Zahner.

The multi-use project includes Austin City Limits Live at Moody Theater, a 2700-person-capacity live music venue and recording studio for the venerable PBS television production. The complex has truly activated this part of downtown Austin while adding a new dimension to the city’s musical culture.

Conceived to set a higher standard for environmentally engaged design in Austin, the development has received Silver LEED certification and will be the largest building in the Central Texas region with this certification, and the only one that is mixed-use.

Block 21 Hotel and Residences in Austin, Texas.

A restrained presence is a key component of the entire complex. Massing and scale make a strong connection to the neighboring buildings, especially to City Hall, which is immediately to the south. At the street level, open air spaces invite gathering and access from Austin’s Second Street District, a growing urban neighborhood.

A landscaped public plaza on the southeast corner opens to cooling breezes off Lady Bird Lake and bridges to the W’s outdoor bar and restaurant, Trace. An adjoining open loggia provides a shaded passage from Lavaca Street to the hotel entrance.

Scratches to metal surface will self-heal as part of the Solanum Steel alloy's weathering properties.

Wichita Riverfront

January 6, 2017/in Exterior Architecture, Landscape Architecture Bridge, Pedestrian Bridge, Transportation Wichita--Kansas HNTB Brown M 2005 /by cmorris

Keeper of the Plains Pedestrian Bridge in Wichita Kansas

For the city’s riverfront revitalization, Zahner worked under HNTB to provide the pedestrian bridge in Wichita, Kansas. Zahner’s scope included primarily the metal panel systems used at the base of the bridge, for which the team provided both fabrication and installation.

The pedestrian bridge is divided into two spans, which each meet at the rivers’ confluence. Zahner provided the metal panel system using raw copper, which means that a dark patina will quickly form on the surface. Over the years, this patina will weather and eventually take on an overall green appearance.

Related Project

Douglas Avenue Bridge

Designed in collaboration with Mark Spitzer Designs, the artworks are each made up of a number of stainless steel tower forms with lighting systems. The forms were inspired by Wichita’s aeronautical heritage and the Jayhawk sail boat, an America’s Cup competitor that is permanently installed adjacent to the bridge at the city’s historic boathouse. The towers allude to the ship’s bow and billowing sail, creating a ceremonial space for pedestrians crossing the bridge, and a beautiful site for the city’s river festival.

Keeper of the Plains Bridge in Wichita, Kansas.

New Castle County Library

January 4, 2017/in Exterior Architecture Library New Castle--Delaware Studio Hillier Brown, Green M 2001 /by cmorris

Brandywine Hundred Library in New Castle County

The Brandywine Hundred Library in New Castle is designed by Studio Hillier and features a Zahner manufactured colonnade with a custom copper patina. The building’s forms recall a historic aesthetic, while its large windows emphasize its natural setting.

Strongly rooted in the landscape and history of the Brandywine Valley, the new 40,000 gross square foot library serves as a 21st century meeting house, expressing and enhancing modern interconnectivity.

The project includes a custom patinated copper canopy which was fabricated by Zahner for the building’s entry soffit. 290 sheets of copper were processed to develop a unique and rustic patina across its surface. This is an early architectural example of custom preweathered patina on copper.

Related Surface

New Castle County Library

Detail of Brandywine Hundred Library in New Castle County

At the end of the colonnade, an outdoor amphitheater creates the library’s storytelling center. The building is composed of two parts—the smaller encompassing the community center, the larger housing the library’s 100,000 volumes, including a reading area with fireplace. The building is fully wired for computers, accommodates 350, and features a 50-seat café and 200-car secure parking lot.

Related Project

Irving Convention Center

The project features a Zahner-engineered and produced copper curtain-wall. The entire surface of the project is custom perforated and bumped with a pattern unique to the building. The surface integrates the ZIRA Process for generating the embossed and punched surface.

Prepatinated copper canopy caps the colonnade for Brandywine Hundred Library

Prepatinated copper skins for Brandywine Hundred Library in the Zahner shop

Washington Elementary

January 4, 2017/in Exterior Architecture Education, Passive Security Sacramento--California HMC Architects Brown, Silver M, S 2016 /by cmorris

Washington Elementary School in Sacramento

Washington Elementary School in Sacramento features a number of unique metal elements manufactured by Zahner using ImageWall for custom perforated metal. Working for Landmark Construction with the designers at HMC Architects, Zahner provided the screens with custom perforated imagery on stainless steel and pre-weathered steel. These screen elements were used to provide passive security and signage while expressing the school’s creativity, science, and technology — marking a new shift towards practicing the STEAM curriculum (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics).

To establish this new shift in education, Sacramento City Unified School District partnered with city leaders and Principal Dr. Gema Godina-Martinez to envision the transformative shift and redesign of Washington Elementary School. The school pursued a STEAM academic program, becoming a magnet for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math education.

HMC Architects was challenged to redesign classrooms and collaborative learning areas not only to support student-centered learning, but to also influence the culture of the school’s educational experience. The project had a tight schedule. This transformation needed to be completed in less than a year to meet the Fall 2016 grand re-opening.

North entrance with perforated images of

North entrance for Washington Elementary School in Sacramento.

When HMC Architects developed the gate design for Washington Elementary, one of the considerations dictating the design decisions was how to provide security for the elementary school students. The project team employed passive security design measures by developing an open-air security gate which would ensure student’s safety while also promoting a playful STEAM atmosphere.

The architects came up with a creative security solution: the picture perforation pattern is more open at children’s height, while densely perforated at adult heights of 4′ to 6′ — ensuring that young students have greater visibility while adults will have greater difficulty seeing into the open air school commons.

Passive Security in Architecture

If you're designing a building for security, it's important to think about how your design's defenses can be met sustainably — and to also consider how these measures can be achieved without antagonizing its inhabitants.

North screenwall at Washington Elementary.

North screenwall with the Washington Elementary in Sacramento.

DETAIL OF THE LOGO SCREENWALL FOR THE WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY IN SACRAMENTO.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

The contractor attached Zahner perforated panels to a galvanized steel structure.

South screenwall at Washington Elementary.

Detail of perforated stainless with Angel Hair finish at Washington Elementary.

Detail of the North entrance gate for Washington Elementary.

North entrance with gear motif on the school's entrance.

NORTH SCREENWALL WITH LOGO FOR THE WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY IN SACRAMENTO.

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY.

Detail of perforated stainless steel at Washington Elementary.

Original signage for the Washington School House.

Perforated stainless steel doors at Washington Elementary.

Detail of the perforated stainless steel door.

Hyatt Regency Houston

January 4, 2017/in Art & Sculpture Hospitality, Public Art, Sculpture, Urban Design Houston--Texas Gensler Brown M 2015 /by cmorris

Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston, Texas

The Hyatt Regency Houston is a new hotel development designed by Gensler which includes several features made using Zahner engineering and fabrication. Among the features provided by Zahner: a massive art wall at the building’s porte-cochère, steel signage at its entrance, and a series of interior lobby partition walls screen dividers manufactured in Solanum Steel.

These architectural details are part of the new 260,000-square-foot, 14-story Hyatt Regency Hotel. Located next to the Houston Galleria, the new construction builds on an existing two-story retail building which was partially demolished and integrated into the new design.

Related Surface

Hyatt Regency Houston

Art wall, fabricated in Solanum Steel and aluminum, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston.

The Hyatt River Art Wall

The artist team responsible for developing the art wall Lester Yuen, Michael Gajevsky and Nancy Nodler. Yuen worked closely with L. William Zahner to develop the artwork, using polished aluminum plate to show a topographical section of the Buffalo Bayou river in Houston, Texas.

The artwork is located under the covered driveway entrance for the hotel. The base layers of the artwork are made using plate aluminum and clad in a final layer of weathering steel with a preweathered finish. Each plate was cut using automated CNC machinery at Zahner. These have a polished edge and are secured below the final layer of Solanum Steel.

Gensler partnered with Zahner’s Design Assist team at the project’s inception to ensure that the project could be developed within the client’s budget. In addition to reducing the overall cost, this process also improved the end quality of the details.

Art wall sections are manufactured in the Zahner shop facility.

Art wall at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston.

Detail of the steel and aluminum connection.

Interior steel partition walls made in preweathered steel.

Zahner-manufactured interior screen wall dividers at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston.

Details of the joints for the art wall at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston.

Detail of the Hyatt River Regency art wall joints.

Light reflects against the aluminum artwork.

Scene75

January 4, 2017/in Exterior Architecture Retail & Commerce Milford--Ohio RT Design Studio Charcoal, Red M 2015 /by cmorris

Scene75 Entertainment Center

Scene 75 is a retail renovation designed by RT Design Studio featuring a fin-based facade system developed by Zahner. The project entailed a conversion of a pre-existing box store into an indoor entertainment center in Milford, Ohio.

The project was an aggressive schedule. The entire process from design to fabrication was completed in less than four months. The building’s signage system integrates a marquee installation, made using CloudWall, a patented system developed by Zahner. The marquee overhangs the main entrance, and is made of red-painted aluminum profiles.

The design was made using parametric design of varying depth CNC cut aluminum fins, undulating to produce a smooth wave. The fully engineered system accommodates a 22’x16’ lighted sign in the middle. Programmable LED lights animate the exterior fin-based facade at night. Among other latest generation arcade gaming equipment and party rooms, the building features: Laser Maze, Go-Karts, mini golf, mini bowling, 4D Theater, Chaos Room, full bar, and a restaurant.

Related System

Scene75

Scene 75 facade at dusk in Milford, Ohio.

OneEleven

January 4, 2017/in Exterior Architecture LEED, Residential Chicago--Illinois Handel Architects Grey M 2014 /by cmorris

OneEleven is a Chicago luxury residential tower designed by Handel Architects. The facade includes a Zahner-manufactured architectural detail made using plate aluminum. Located at 111 West Wacker Drive, the building was converted from an uncompleted hotel which had sat vacant for several years. Handel Architects were able to salvage the shell and add an additional 25 stories to create a 60-story residential building.

Zahner created the human-scale artistic details which adorn the front facade. At the front entrance, Zahner metalwork can be seen adorning the lower levels of the building’s facade as a layering of perforated metal. Zahner worked with Handel to develop a tracery pattern depicting an abstract treescape, manufactured in painted plate aluminum.

Entrance to the OneEleven residential tower in Chicago, Illinois.

Architect's rendering of the right (West) panel system

Single panel raised into the window unit for OneEleven.

Stacked panel system prior to installing in Chicago, Illinois.

OneEleven at night in Chicago, Illinois.

Detail of the OneEleven art wall in Chicago, Illinois.

Ministry of Interior

January 4, 2017/in Interior Architecture Government Asia, International, Riyadh--Saudi Arabia Musalli-- Shakir-- and Mandilli Gold M 1990 /by cmorris

The Ministry of Interior in Riyadh

The Ministry of Interior is a building designed by Archisystems Musalli, Shakir, and Mandilli. The building features an interior dome manufactured by Zahner. The Ministry of Interior is located in Riyadh, and is the responsible authority for national security, naturalization, immigration and customs in Saudi Arabia.

The dome was made using structural components manufactured in copper alloy. The project was manufactured in the Kansas City facility at Zahner where the components were crated and shipped to Riyadh for assembly. Due to the sensitive nature of the building, interior photographs are not prohibited, and the finished photographs of the work are not available.

Related Project

Jakarta Australian Embassy

The design by Denton Corker Marshall was the winning entry in limited design competition. The materials reflect not only characteristic colors of the Australian landscape but also convey something of the natural resources and mineral wealth. Each building at the Embassy is clad in a distinct metal, representing Australia’s wealth in these materials: copper, zinc, brass, steel and aluminum.

Miu Miu Aoyama

January 4, 2017/in Exterior Architecture, Interior Architecture Flagship, Retail & Commerce, Storefront Asia, International, Japan, Tokyo--Japan Herzog & de Meuron Gold M 2014 /by cmorris

iu Miu Aoyama in Tokyo, Japan

Miu Miu Aoyama is a luxury retail building in Tokyo designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The building exterior features Zahner-manufactured copper bullnose details with dense custom perforations and round zig-zag seams. Zahner also provided the interior copper panels with the same bumped copper aesthetic.

The project was developed for Miuccia Prada who leads the Paris-based Miu Miu brand. Located in the Aoyama district in Tokyo, the project is the latest in a neighborhood that has become known for architectural innovation. Across the street is the Prada Tokyo Epicenter also designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The Miu Miu Aoyama represents a stark contrast to the prior work. Its subtle reflective exterior disguises its rich copper soffit and interior.

THE DE YOUNG MUSEUM IN SAN FRANCISCO. ZAHNER OWNED THE ENTIRE EXTERIOR COPPER SKIN AND GLAZING.

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de Young Museum

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.