Metal lightens and enlivens the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center
Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., is a liberal arts college that believes exposure to the arts is important for all its students. Since 1965, its Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center has been a space that celebrated the arts, music, their students and fac- ulty, and the surrounding community. But recently, this center was comprehensively renovated and expanded. The fi rst phase includes the Music building, a
fully renovated Concert Hall, added and improved rehearsal and performance space, and a new Arts Commons in the central core of the building, housing new art history classrooms and a new art gallery. Metal played a part in this phase and was used because of its durability. Maplewood, Minn.-based MG McGrath Inc.
fabricated and installed approximately 29,000 square feet of metal on the Performing Arts build- ing, including both interior and exterior applica- tions. Materials on the exterior included 0.040 5005 (post anodized) aluminum custom fabricated by MG McGrath into a MG-R Seam Panel profi le with exposed face dimensions ranging from 8 to 12 inches combined with varying reveal widths. The 0.040 5005 Aluminum fl at sheet was provided by Anoka, Minn.-based Firestone Metal Products, fabricated by MG McGrath Inc., and anodized by Minneapolis-based Hiawatha Metalcraft prior to be- ing installed on the building. “Anodized aluminum is created by dipping mill-
fi nished aluminum in a series of specifi c chemicals at a certain temperature for a certain amount of time and passing a certain amount of electrical current through it,” says Jono Semlak, project manager at MG McGrath. “Compared to a painted aluminum fi nish, anodizing (with all the variables noted above) will exhibit color variation and will slightly change colors as you look at it from differ- ent angles. This can be seen with the sun on it or even on a cloudy day.”
MG Composite-Wet Joint Panel System
fabricated from 4-mm black anodized panels from Chesapeake, Va.-based ALPOLIC by Mitsubishi Plastics Composites America Inc. were also used on all elevations, as were louvers from Delano, Minn.- based Industrial Louvers. The panels and louvers were installed on the exterior of the building at vary- ing reveals to provide natural light into the building. On the interior, MG McGrath Inc. installed
perforated rib panels supplied by Lancaster, Pa.- based Fabral, expanded metal ceilings supplied by Birmingham, Ala.-based AMICO, and MG McGrath Composite panels fabricated with material supplied by Chesapeake, Va.-based ALPOLIC by Mitsubishi Plastics Composites America Inc. “On the north façade of the Music Build-
ing, which faces visitors as they enter campus from the north, we sought a bold and memorable expression that said something about the activities within,” says Douglas M. M. Gerlach, AIA, LEED AP, and senior associate at HGA Architects and Engineers, the Minneapolis-based fi rm that served as the project’s architect. “We worked with MG McGrath to create a deep, textured light-bronze metal façade consisting of custom-fabricated, verti- cal panels of triangular shape and plan. The angle of the panels changes across the facade, playing with light and shadow. The pattern of these panels was inspired by a graphic analysis of the musical composition of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.” One of the biggest challenges on this project
was making certain panels fi t and timed out ac- curately around the windows because the panels had multiple different-sized reveals ranging from 1 to 4 inches. “The use of metal was very accom- modating when making the custom-sized panels because it gave us the opportunity to make the panels a nontypical size, so they timed out with the windows correctly,” says Semlak. Now with phase one successfully completed, phase two with metal being a major element, is on its way soon.
Macalester College Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, St. Paul, Minn.
Completed: Spring 2012 Total square footage: 27,240 square feet Building owner: Macalester College General contractor: McGough Construction, St. Paul, Minn. Architect: HGA Architects and Engineers, Minneapolis Anodizer: Hiawatha Metalcraft, Minneapolis Metal wall panels fabricator/installer: MG McGrath Inc., Maplewood, Minn. Louvers/sunscreens: Industrial Louvers, Delano, Minn.,
www.industriallouvers.com Metal wall panels: Fabral, Lancaster, Pa.,
www.fabral.com; Firestone Building Products Inc., Anoka, Minn.,
www.fi restonebpco.com; AMICO, Birmingham, Ala.,
www.amico-online.com; ALPOLIC by Mitsubishi Plastics Composites America Inc., Chesapeake, Va.,
www.alpolic-usa.com
www.metalconstructionnews.com
This is the center before the retrofi t. (Before photo courtesy of McGough) December 2013
METAL CONSTRUCTION NEWS 27
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68