Chihuahua’s Businessmen Foundation (FECHAC) Regional Offi ce, Ciudad Juarez, Chihua- hua, Mexico
2012 Chairman’s Awards The Metal Construction Association honors outstanding building projects
At last month’s METALCON, the Metal Con- struction Association honored its 2012 Chair- man’s Award recipients. An annual designation given to outstanding building projects involv- ing MCA member companies, the Chairman’s Awards honor innovation and creativity while showcasing how metal products help achieve exceptional building designs.
This year, honorees were chosen by a panel
of professional architects that included Andrew M. Koglin, AIA, president of OKW Architects, Chicago; Elaine Fitzgerald, CSI, CDT, CCS, is a registered architect with experience in commercial, higher education and high-rise building design; and Hector
Hernandez, Associate AIA, LEED GA, is an associ- ate architect at Chicago-based Legat Architects. Projects considered for the MCA Chairman’s
awards are projects that were submitted to Metal Architecture Design Awards. The MCA Chairman’s Awards were given in
eight categories: Municipal, Education–Primary and Secondary Schools, Education–Colleges and Universities, Institutional, Commercial/Industrial, Roofi ng, Residential and Overall Excellence. MCA also honored one project with an Honorable Men- tion Award for Overall Use of Metal.
OVERALL EXCELLENCE Chihuahua’s Businessmen Foundation (FECHAC) Regional Offi ce, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico The Chihuahua’s Businessmen Foundation (FECHAC) Regional Offi ce features four unique
40-foot-high aluminum pillars, made up of Reyno- bond aluminum composite material panels from Alcoa Architectural Products. The pillars hold the offi ces of the company and are designed with a similarity to the stone heads on Easter Island that watch over and protect the community. The crisp folds of aluminum create a mosaic-like pattern that changes in color and intensity as sunlight moves across the building during the day. At night, color-changing lights illuminate the façades to continue the movement of light across the angles of the structure. The MCA judging panel thought this project
stood out from all the others because it incorpo- rates metal into many parts of the building. They found it fascinating that the architects were able to use metal to represent rock. Lights on the building were incorporated to make the metal look different in summer and in winter.