Creativity Begets Innovation
Reynobond helps architects push the limits of conventional design By Dutch Juedeman
As more and more architects discover the benefits of working with Reynobond aluminum composite materials (ACM), they’re pushing the limits of conventional design further than ever before. Using the materials—much like children playing with Playdoh—to shape buildings with fantastic forms and complex geometry that would have once been inconceivable. At Alcoa, we’re seeing more and more fabricators and installers working together to develop unique engineering and installation systems as their knowledge of the material properties increases.
IT’S ALL IN THE GEOMETRY The buildings of the 21st century will be distin- guished from their predecessors because of the advancements our industry has made and the inher- ent versatility of metal building products. Designers are using color and form as the primary elements in their designs. Walls once straight now undulate. Vivid color announces a building’s intent. Structures that once would have been bulky, rectangular boxes have a new lightness and sculptural forms. One such project, University Hospitals Seidman
Cancer Center in Cleveland could have been a bulky box. Instead, using 4-mm Reynobond ACM and glass, the architect created a light-filled structure that appears to fold inward on the north and south elevations much like the sides of a paper grocery bag. The west façade of the building flares outward at the base in a big convex curve like the ramp of a very wide ski jump, while the east façade gently undulates as it rises to the roof. It is that same spirit of innovation that drives the
metal fabricators and installers to develop additional methods to address the complex geometry inherent in each new project. Three-D modeling has become an essential tool to engineer each and every job. To ensure that the Duke Energy Center in Charlotte, N.C., would be rendered flawlessly, the Miller-Clap- perton Partnership Inc. of Austell, Ga., Juba Alumi- num Products of Concord, N.C., and Batson-Cook Construction of Atlanta, coordinated their expertise. The designer’s model provided a template that
precisely detailed each angle and bend needed for each individual panel of Reynobond ACM. The fabricator and engineer then created their own 3-D models, overlaying the three together throughout
the project to check for clash detection. As further safeguards, the team selected random plot points in the field to verify that the construction matched the model predications, and then physically pulled a line down the building following the ridgeline. While do- ing so they found that the model was missing some of the light-gauge framing, just enough to throw off the geometry but fortunately simple to rectify.
NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION This new freedom from traditional form also neces- sitates developing new installation methods to ac- commodate the individual geometry of each project. For instance, the design for the Duke Energy Center required an ingenious approach to installing Reyno- bond ACM panels on the façade at the point where the tower begins to truncate, around 660 feet in the air. While construction crews were able to rely on traditional scaffolding braced inside the building and cantilevered outward, the geometry of the building did not allow perfect access to the gutters or the top of the building. Juba Aluminum’s installers liter- ally had to rappel down the face of the crown. Like rock climbers, they hung in the air attached with safety lines, working on their knees to attach the panels. The design of the CassaNY Hotel and Resi-
dences, one of New York City’s newest luxury boutique hotels, also had a major effect on the way the ACM panels were engineered for the façade of the 48-story building. The building site in the center of Times Square, winter weather, a tight time frame, and the fact that the floor-plates decrease in size by a two-degree angle giving each floor a slightly dif- ferent footprint further increased the difficulty. Addi- tionally, each corner panel had to be a unique shape and size to work with the vertical joint schematic on the east and west elevations. To ensure the instal- lation went smoothly, Riverside Group of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and Island International Industries Inc. of Calverton, N.Y., fabricated oversized, unitized panels some as large as 400 square feet, 40 feet long and 10 feet tall from floor to floor. Some of the larger panels were seamed togeth-
er at the corners or at the return conditions in order to achieve the larger sizes. All were performance tested and validated by an independent testing lab before installation. By doing so, the installation was completed using only a 10-man crew to install 400 oversized panels, eight per floor, using only the
tower crane on site to hoist the panels up and over the building to their intended location. The tower was enclosed in just eight weeks with no delays.
ALCOA’S R&D SCIENTISTS ARE NOT CONTENT TO REST ON THEIR LAURELS Innovation is key to our strategy at Alcoa. While our scientists continue to improve and add to the Alcoa Architectural Products line with industry-changing innovations such as Reynobond with EcoClean and our Colorweld 500 finish, we’re focusing on improv- ing our clients’ understanding of the materials’ prop- erties and have created a Design Assist program to aid them in their quest to find the appropriate metal solutions for their projects.
Dutch Juedeman is the national program develop- ment manager for Alcoa Architectural Products, Eastman, Ga. To learn more, visit
www.alcoaarch
itecturalproducts.com.
University Hospitals’ new Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland, Ohio, is clad in Reynobond Natural Brushed Aluminum Composite Material XL, 62-inch-wide panels.
www.metalarchitecture.com July 2012 METAL ARCHITECTURE 51
Mark Kempf, St. Louis
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