When a turn-of-the-century Norwegian Church in Hoboken, N.J., became available around the time his fi rm was looking to expand, Dean Marchetto, AIA, PP, founding principal of Marchetto Higgins Stieve Architects (formerly Dean Marchetto Archi- tects PC), Hoboken, immediately saw the potential of restoring the building to its original glory. “There was a dropped ceiling in place when I bought the structure, but I knew the original metal vaulted ceiling was up there,” he says. “The vaulted ceiling provided the potential for an inspiring design studio space suitable for an architectural fi rm.”
Within a few years the fi rm doubled in size
from seven to 15 architects, and it became neces- sary to expand. Marchetto chose to add a rounded room, known as an Apse, in the style of old Catholic churches like St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, to the church building. The new ad-
dition became his offi ce and a conference area. “Be- ing modern architects we decided to build a modern abstract version of what an apse would be on this 120-year-old building,” explains Marchetto. “As such we had a little fun with it and named the project ‘Apse-Traction.’ The interior volume of the Apse also resulted in a creative workspace with lots of light.” Caliper Studio, New York City, fabricated the
structural steel frame for the apse, which is clad in VMZinc metal wall panels in PIGMENTO Red, Green and Blue, from Umicore Building Products USA Inc., Raleigh, N.C. The one-of-a-kind hex- agonal panels are designed by a computer script written with the help of students at The Product Architecture Lab at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken. Each panel’s dimensions are directly related to the degree of curvature of each panel, and are determined by where the panel is located. The laser-cut panels were installed one at a time by Vitalistic Construction, Oakridge, N.J. Replicat- ing reptile skin, the scales at the top are smaller and get increasingly bigger as they move down the roof’s undulating form.