M | Zahner

Waipolu Gallery

Waipolu Gallery and Studio

The Waipolu Gallery, located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, was designed by Peter Bohlin of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ). Built to house a privately-owned collection of post-World War II painting and sculpture, the structure offers a stunning setting for appreciating art.

Zahner fabricated the custom façade finished in Dirty Penny copper. The patinated surface will continue to evolve over time, much like the aging of the sculptures displayed within.

In 2010, Waipolu Gallery received the North American Copper in Architecture award in addition to several design awards for the work of BCJ architects.

Detail of the custom patina on copper panels for the Waipolu Gallery.

Panoramic photo of the Waipolu Gallery and Studio during construction

“The biggest challenge was to make this a great place – to be brilliant to the art for this client, in this place. I thrive on the challenge and the opportunity to make a great building and an extraordinary place. One of the great pleasures in architecture is to be able to reflect people with places and then — how to make things – how to shape them.”
— Peter Bohlin

The gallery’s proximity to the Pacific Ocean to the south and Diamond Head to the northeast afford views from the building itself, shown above (during construction).

Detail of the copper window framing for Waipolu Gallery during construction

Photo of the Waipolu Gallery facade during construction

Detail of the interior metalwork, fabricated by Zahner for the Waipolu Gallery.

“Malleability of the material was important due to the fact that the installation was occurring at a great distance from the fabrication shop and some shaping in the field was necessary,” said the project architect, Campie Ellis. “We also liked the idea that the building’s coloring would change over time, creating an evolving work or sculpture.”

W Hollywood

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture, Landscape Architecture Highrise, Hospitality, LEED Los Angeles--California Daly Genik, HKS Grey M 2010 /by cmorris

W Hollywood Flagship Hotel and Residences, Rooftop Canopy

One of the earliest completed architectural works which could be described as “generative design”, the rooftop canopy for the W Hollywood flagship was designed by HKS and Daly Genik. The design team’s concept was ahead of its time: the lightweight shingled surface which allows air and light to flow through its surface is both functionally and aesthetically forward-thinking, an aesthetic which became highly visible years after its completion.

Its form evokes the effect of a ruffled skirt, a concept which has become more prevalent since the structure’s completion. The design also provides a cooling effect both for its shade and breeze.

The 15-story award winning building is certified LEED Silver, winning the prestigious Millennium Award. Completed in 2010, the hotel is located in downtown Hollywood in California, an area which is becoming vertically dense with highrise buildings such as the W Hollywood.

Zahner was involved with the Daly Genik-designed curvilinear aluminum and steel canopy on the building’s rooftop garden. The canopy brings thousands of shingled aluminum panels to adorn the curving form which serves as a shade canopy for W Hollywood pool-side guests.

W Hollywood Hotel in CAD

Image © A. Zahner Company.

Architects from Daly Genik examine the mockup at Zahner.

The system borrows components from the ZEPPS process, which informed both the fabrication and installation process for the rooftop cabana. Zahner’s Design Assist team designed the details and engineered the structural canopy. The Design Assist team met with architects from Daly Genik to develop a section of the canopy as a mockup, which was constructed in the Zahner shop in Kansas City.

Architect's Rendering of the W Hollywood Flagship Hotel.

W Hollywood Further Reading

The highlight of the hotel’s rooftop pool area is a curving cabana wrapped in aluminum scales; it was designed by Daly Genik Architects, which also was responsible for the condominium interiors and the striking Douglas fir-lined lobby for the condo tower. Kevin Daly, a founder of the firm, said the W asked him to design the cabana as ‘a Venus’ flytrap for supermodels.

— Christopher Hawthorne, LA Times

Below are links to both external resources, articles, and press, as well as internal links to similar projects and products used in the W Hollywood Flagship Hotel.

W Hollywood Awards The W Hollywood Website.
Architects Newspaper Team Hollywood Alissa Walker, January 2010
LA Times W Hotel: An Urban Complexity Christopher Hawthorne, January 2010
Google Maps W Hotel Hollywood Map in Zahner Earth
Zahner Product: ZEPPS Process for building complex curves

Hope Tower at UNMC

August 15, 2016/in Art & Sculpture Education, Monument, Sculpture Omaha--Nebraska James Carpenter Design Associates Gold, Yellow L, M 2010 /by cmorris

Tower at University of Nebraska Medical Center

The Tower at UNMC is a James Carpenter Design Associates project. The project’s design team was led by Richard Kress. The campus art feature stands at 120 feet. A private donation led by Ruth and Bill Scott brought this iconic campus feature to the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

The tower serves provides a beacon for students, serving as both a navigational tool and an artistic centerpiece. Zahner provided the ti-coated stainless steel panels, perforated and prepped for installation onto the architect’s engineered frame. These panels were engineered and produced at Zahner at the Kansas City plant.

Related Surface

Ti-Stainless Steel

Ti-Stainless is a stainless steel sheet metal with with titanium alloy in its coating. There are several methods to achieve color on stainless steel. From the chemical bath process of Interference Stainless Steel to electroplating with tinting agents. Ti-Stainless is one of the most effective methods to achieve a unique tone or color on stainless is through titanium and other alloys applied to the surface of the stainless steel.

Perforated panels on Hope Tower at UNMC at dusk.

Gold-colored ti-coated stainless steel used on Hope Tower at UNMC.

Detail of the steel structure and perforated ti-coated stainless steel.

The design features hundreds of triangular perforated 16ga titanium-coated stainless steel panels which attach to an open structure. The perforations effectively create a visually lightweight aesthetic.

The tower was designed to reflect the beautiful effects that occur in the Nebraska sky. It combines stainless steel and natural light to embody UNMC’s scientific character and the transient qualities of Nebraska’s skies. If it’s a bright sunny day, it will appear to shimmer. At dusk, it will reflect the variety of colors that are in the sky.

Installers place the triangular curving panels at UNMC in Nebraska.

Detail of the perforated triangular panels used on Hope Tower at UNMC.

The project was built in the course of a year, and completed in 2010. This is the second project that Zahner has completed for the architects and artists at James Carpenter Design Associates, the first being the Silver Towers Courtyard in New York City. The designers at James Carpenter provide a unique outlook on the play of light on surfaces, an effect which is best perceived in person.

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.

Related Surface

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.

The William T. Kemper Painting Studios

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Education, Renovation Kansas City Gastinger Walker Harden Black, Gold, Grey M 2006 /by cmorris

William T. Kemper Painting Studios

The 34,000 square foot William T. Kemper Painting Studios is a renovation to the existing building used by the painting department at KCAI for over thirty years.

The new building was designed by Gastinger Walker Harden, features unique patterning and rich customizations throughout the project. Diamond-shaped preweathered grey zinc panels adorn the building’s south elevation. A utility fence, perforated and undulated, wraps the crown of the building. Over the building’s north entrance, a custom embossed indentation provides a historic technique to achieve a modern aesthetic.

The building is clad in a variety of metal surfaces developed by Zahner — copper, zinc, and aluminum adorn the building in near equal parts. The copper was installed as a raw “red” sheet with the intention that it would weather over time and eventually become green. This process will take 10 to 20 years typically.

In addition to using prestige metals these custom surface adjustments are designed to smoothly transition around edges. The copper facade has a creased hatch edge emboss which continues parametrically, even where it breaks for gaps in various slots and windows. To achieve this parametric quality, the entire building’s facade was digitally defined. This enabled Zahner engineers to control corners, wrapping the custom emboss patterns around corners and under the soffits. Each piece of metal has its designated destination before it’s even manufactured. The building is also clad in a preweathered zinc facade. These diamond-shaped panels are fabricated with a custom recessed flat-seam system.

Corner detail of the zinc facade on the Dodge Painting Building at KCAI

South elevation of the dodge building's preweathered zinc facade

East elevation of the Dodge Building's copper facade, shortly after installation

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

August 15, 2016/in Art & Sculpture, Exterior Architecture Performance Center, Sculpture Philadelphia--Pennsylvania Kieran Timberlake Gold, Red, Violet M 2007 /by cmorris

The Philadelphia Theatre Company’s dynamic Marquee signage

Completed in 2007, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre was designed by KieranTimberlake and features signage manufactured by Zahner.

Named for the former actress, playwright, and director, Suzanne Roberts Theatre is part of the initiative to enhance Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts. The building’s new marquee signage provides a striking statement about the quality of the arts program while maintaining the existing building and providing cover as an entrance soffit.

Related Project

Kieran Timberlake Office Stair

For the firm’s 63,000 ft² office, Zahner created a custom floating stairway. Connecting the entrance lobby and lab area with the office and meeting spaces, the painted red steel stairway is a feat of form and function.

Suzanne Roberts Theatre in Philadelphia.

KieranTimberlake contracted Zahner to provide engineering and fabrication for the dynamic shape of the facade signage. Working through an intitial Design Assist phase, the project was developed for digital fabrication.

To produce the sculptural form, the marquee was engineered and fabricated using ZEPPS Technology, the Zahner system for building complex, curving sculptural forms. The technology enables fast installation, installed in just a few assemblies. Each assembly is made up of structural aluminum fins and ribs which are prefabricated in the Zahner facility offsite. These assemblies were then clad in a number of sheet metal skinned surfaces. KieranTimberlake worked with Zahner to select a iridescent stainless steel surface which provides the sign’s unique coloring.

Detail of the Suzanne Roberts Theatre in Philadelphia.

CAD Diagrams showing individual Zahner assembly parts

ZEPPS structure for Suzanne Roberts Theatre prior to cladding

ZEPPS structure, clad in stainless steel skin with adhesive protective layer

Two assemblies made using ZEPPS in the Zahner yard prior to shipment to Philadelphia

St. Teresa’s Lace

August 15, 2016/in Art & Sculpture, Exterior Architecture Education Kansas City Gould Evans Associates White M 2011 /by cmorris

Windmoor Center and Chapel of St. Joseph St. Teresa’s Academy

Designed by Gould Evans and Associates, The Windmoor Center and Chapel of St. Joseph at St. Teresa’s Academy is a 10,000-square-foot building that houses four high-tech classrooms that transform into a single event space for banquets and the new 150-seat chapel.

The building’s distinctive facade shrouds the outside of the structure and evokes the school’s namesake, St. Teresa, the patron saint of Lacemakers. The building serves as the gateway to the campus. A survey of students and faculty identified a need for a contemplative space with natural light.

Related Project

Church of the Resurrection

PHOTO © A. ZAHNER COMPANY. Founded in 1990, the Church of the Resurrection has grown into the largest United Methodist Church in the U.S. with 18,000 members. Seeking to expand and remodel its existing facility on a 76-acre site, the church is adding an acoustically versatile sanctuary seating 3,500 and converting the existing auditorium into a multi-purpose room.

Zahner was brought in early in the planning process for the new building. Gould Evans hired Zahner to design-engineer and build the facade, working through a Design Assist phase to develop the unique screen wall system.

Lace patterns cut into plate aluminum and rolled for the curving facade at St. Teresa's Academy.

Water-jet cut aluminum plates with lace-pattern.

Windmoor Chapel at St. Teresa's Academy.

Detail, aluminum plates with lace-pattern.

Perforated metal with curved form rolled and fabricated by Zahner.

Students and faculty from St. Teresa's preview the mockup at Zahner.

Windmoor Center at St. Teresa's Academy.

SMU Collins

August 15, 2016/in Interior Architecture Education Dallas--Texas Gensler Blue, Green M 2005 /by cmorris

SMU Collins Executive Center in Dallas, Texas

Designed by Gensler for Southern Methodist University, The Collins Executive Center is a part of the Cox school of business, and serves as a way to connect students with real-world business professionals and entrepreneurs.

Zahner provided the contractors with pre-patinated copper with artistic variation. For these interior panels, Zahner used Star Blue Copper, a custom patina on copper. Zahner developed the pre-weathered copper panels in the fabrication and patination facility in Kansas City, and delivered the panels to the installers in Dallas.

Related Surface

SMU Collins

Custom copper patina on interior metal panels at the SMU Collins study room.

Detail of the artistic pre-patinated copper at SMU Collins.

SFMTA Ticket Kiosks

August 15, 2016/in Exterior Architecture Transportation San Francisco Bay Lundberg Design Silver M, S 2011 /by cmorris

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Ticket Kiosks

The SFMTA Ticket Kiosks are a series of ticketing booths in San Francisco for accessing the cable car envisioned by Lundberg Design. Zahner manufactured the custom perforated metal components for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. The designers wanted to wrap the top of the booth with imagery of the historic cable cars.

This effect was elegantly achieved by perforating the surface of stainless steel to create the light and dark tonal values of the original photographs. To achieve the mosaic-perforated imagery, ZIRA patented technology was used (designers can now create similar designs using ImageWall to generate custom perf).

Related System

SFMTA Ticket Kiosks

This technology enabled a smooth translation of the designer’s imagery to metal while also also ensuring panel-to-panel relational accuracy. This is crucial on a project such as this: The imagery is divided into a series of panels and wrapped around the sides of the small structure, so it was important that the perforations on each panel lined up with the next panel.

The photos above are from the Cable Car line are located where Powell meets Market in San Francisco. The second kiosk is located at Presidio Avenue and Geary Blvd, pictured below. Above is an image of the completed panels in the Zahner shop prior to shipping to San Francisco. Blue protective film protects the stainless surface from finger prints and dirt prior to installation.

Video and stills courtesy Ryan Hughes of Lundberg Design. Hughes managed the project from the early design phases to the project’s completion, working closely with Zahner engineers and fabricators throughout the process.

Regazzoni Sculpture

August 15, 2016/in Art & Sculpture, Interior Architecture Education, Sculpture Asia, Doha--Qatar, International, Middle East Legorreta + Legorreta Ricardo Regazzoni Gold, Silver M /by cmorris

Ricardo Regazzoni Sculpture at Georgetown, Qatar

Forty reflective spiraling forms appear to float above the atrium at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Services in the capital city of Doha, Qatar. Completed in 2012, this project marks the fourth significant work produced by Zahner in Doha, and the second produced under the vision of architects Legorreta + Legorreta who designed the building for Georgetown University at Doha as well as the HBKU Doha University Student Center a few blocks away.

The artwork at the heart of Georgetown University was conceived by sculptor Ricardo Regazzoni, engineered by Zahner, fabricated in the Zahner shop, and installed by local installers in Doha under Zahner supervision. Each of the forms measures 38’ long, and the artwork fills an area of 82’ x 131’ over the open atrium.

Collaboration between Zahner and Regazzoni is a match of of kindred philosophies. While Regazzoni works to transform architectural columns and archways into artistic expression, Zahner works to bring architecture into the realm of art. This alignment of sensibilities between the artist and fabricator gave this project a strong sense of direction.

Regazzoni Sculpture at Georgetown University.

Upward view of individual hanging sculptures by Ricardo Regazzoni.

View from below a hanging sculpture at Georgetown Qatar, by Ricardo Regazzoni.

Design Assist for Art: The Regazzoni Sculpture

In late 1990s while working with Frank Gehry on the EMP Museum in Seattle, Zahner coined a term which has become the industry standard for building complex projects: Design Assist. The museum’s complexity required that Zahner work closely with Gehry’s office to develop the design. Design assist was first used to describe this process. Since then, design assist has become widely known as the most intelligent construction method for achieving efficient and cost-effective production of complex architectural projects. Along with frequent partner Metalabs, this process is now being applied to art.

The Regazzoni Sculpture details were developed by Zahner’s think tank of installers, engineers, and fabricators: the Design Assist team at Zahner. This group of engineers and consultants worked together with the artist to develop a system which could meet both the functional and visual standards. The team developed a mockup to test the drawings and construction processes.

Detail of the Regazzoni mockup, revealing its minimalist connections.

Rendering of the Regazzoni installation in CAD.

From Mockup to Installation: The Regazzoni Sculpture

Regazzoni’s undulating, diagonal forms were extremely intricate, requiring specialized engineering and attention to craft during every stage of their creation: from design, to fabrication, to installation. Working within Regazzoni’s vision, Zahner’s Design Assist team developed specialized details for the connections of each intricate geometric part.

Zahner began by producing a mockup of the artist’s design, providing a model that revealed the connections and provided a template for the components. The design features a weld-less connection system. It was important to eliminate welds so that the mirror-polished surface would be free of any discoloration from the welding process.

The resulting surface minimizes the appearance of fasteners, and weld discoloration. The headless pin system is almost indiscernible to the naked eye, and the connections prove to be every bit as strong as welded joints: each connection is capable of supporting 600 kilos, or five times the hanging sculpture’s weight.

Shipping the Regazzoni

Due to its complex geometry and elongated form, the Regazzoni was susceptible to bending during shipment and transportation. To accommodate for this risk, Zahner designed custom lifting rigs and crating to ensure that the piece arrived at the installation site in good condition. Below is an example of the crating, which was custom-built to efficiently and safely ship the pieces overseas to Doha, Qatar. Zahner is committed to the integrity of an artist’s vision, from the preliminary stages of design to shipment and the final days of installation.

Zahner shop personnel make measurements to align the Regazzoni sculpture.

Zahner shipment personnel package the forms in open crates for delivery.

The artist wanted a visual masterpiece with concealed connections, so that each form appears to be suspended by magic. Zahner’s biscuit extrusion is used to attach the metal tendrils to the ceiling.

Building Art & Architecture

Together with the Metalabs art services team, Zahner has completed over 70 public and private works of art for both established and emerging artists. Working with artists has expanded Zahner’s research and development team, which has in turn provided many innovative surfaces, processes, and techniques applicable to both art and architecture. Zahner’s team of engineers and fabricators have proven flexible to many kinds of projects, and have produced works of many scales. Get in touch with to learn about how Zahner can integrate into your project.