Suspended motion:
Metal brings life to Tampa Museum of Art
Mary Estes,
Posted
10/01/2009
As
architect Stanley Saitowitz surveyed the future site of the Tampa
Museum of Art, Tampa, Fla., he noticed the play of light from the
sun and clouds. The Hillsborough River rippled nearby.
Not wanting to replicate a particular image in his museum design,
Saitowitz thought about the naturally changing light and motion,
and a reflective metal came to mind.
While metal has a long history in building design, Saitowitz's
vision for the material is distinctively 21st century. Guided by
his imagination and the wide range of architectural metals and
fabrication methods available today, he and his team at Natoma
Architects in San Francisco envisioned a wealth of possibilities.
One image stood above all.
By wrapping the upper levels in perforated aluminum panels and
enclosing the first level in glass, he could achieve the look of
suspended motion.
To accomplish the illusion, he designed a building façade
consisting of two layers of perforated panels positioned slightly
off center from one another, which during the day creates a wavy,
moiré pattern. Carrying the concept further, he incorporated
computerized LED lighting between the metal layers, which, at
night, produces a living mural of light refracting through the
perforation.
"We looked for a material that is stable, yet feels alive, like the
surface of the water that is constantly rippling," Saitowitz said
of the decision to incorporate aluminum. "The idea of a metal skin
is that it has a quality similar to the landscape elements-the
natural water and sky-that are prominent features of the
location."
Having incorporated metal in previous projects, Saitowitz and his
colleagues knew about its expressive nature and versatility,
especially perforated aluminum. Lightweight, stable and able to
diffuse light, it wears well in outside conditions and requires
little maintenance.
Collaborating
with his team-perforated metal supplier McNichols Co., Tampa; the
installer M.G. McGrath Architectural Sheet Metal, Maplewood, Minn.;
and general contractor Skanska, Tampa-Saitowitz validated the
material's ability to replicate his vision through a series of
scale models and field tests.
By creatively offsetting the two layers of perforated aluminum, the
holes take on a ripple affect in the sunlight. By adding a
programmable LED light system between the layers, the museum's
façade becomes a virtual nocturnal canvas for electronic
artistry.
The Modernization of Metal
Metal has played a significant role in building design for years,
dating to sheds and domestic structures of the 1890s, Saitowitz
said. The corrugated variety is still visible in some rural locales
around the country.
Popularity grew in World War II with the advent of the Quonset hut,
a mass-produced shed that was lightweight, easy to ship and quick
to assemble into semi-circular forms that housed military offices
and supplies.
Today, after a dose of modernization and interest in building
green, architectural metals areas much in demand as the innovative
systems needed for their fabrication and installation.
The 3,000 perforated metal panels used to wrap the Tampa Museum of
Art are from McNichols Designer Metals, a line of products
McNichols developed specifically for the architectural community.
The 1/8-inch- (3-mm-) thick, clear anodized aluminum has 3-inch
(76-mm) diameter holes spaced in straight rows 1 inch (25 mm)
apart.
Saitowitz and
M.G. McGrath selected the material because of its unique
characteristics and their experience with McNichols products. "We
got really excited that McNichols is based in Tampa and part of the
museum community," Saitowitz said.
As a leading supplier of specialty metal with 17 service centers
and six field offices nationwide, McNichols brought product
knowledge, geographic proximity to the construction site and a
special interest in having a quality art museum in its
hometown.
"McNichols was pleased with the opportunity to be part of such a
stand-out project in ourown back yard," said Steve Wilcher,
architectural market manager for McNichols."We have worked with
many architects and fabricators in all parts of the country. This
one is clearly unique."
M.G. McGrath's long tradition of providing master craftsmanship to
builders, architects and owners engaged in metal design and
construction, and Skanska's vast experience preparing structural
surfaces that accommodate metal applications made a formidable
team.
The Ripple Effect
"The design of this building is pretty much one of a kind," said
Chuck Jablon, vice president of operations for Skanska. For its
part, Skanska was challenged to deliver a building "that's true
within 1/8 of an inch horizontally and vertically."
The dimensional precision is especially important on the three
façades where the double layers of the metal panels reside. To
achieve a true ripple effect, the second layer of perforated panel
had to be fabricated and installed so that it offsets the first
layer by half the circumference of the hole.
The process required a complex wall system devised by M.G. McGrath
using detailed CAD drawings. "We started with nothing more than a
sheet of paper to draw the idea," said Mike McGrath, vice president
of M.G. McGrath
"We spent a lot of time creating various computer models working
through a range of scenarios of what would happen if this or that
shifts," he said, describing one field test that involved building
a prototype wall system on wheels that could be rolled outside and
examined in the natural sunlight.
The entire team was provided with a master plan of grids and
control lines so that every team member had the same starting
point, Jablon said.
As building design progressed and information came in about the
location of sprinklers,lighting, heating and cooling systems, M.G.
McGrath made revisions accordingly.
"The skin
dictated much of what else was happening, so there was a lot of
shifting to be done," he said.
To accept the perforated wall panel system, which sits on flattened
stainless-steel rod clips, the building had to be mathematically
exact-from the foundation to the structural steel to anchor bolts
on the column beams to the metal studs.
The challenge was to fit in each of the individual metal panels
that are comprised of nearly 300 varying sizes. Laid out on a grid,
the panels wrap approximately 96,000 square feet (8,918 m2) of the
building surface, including the exterior walls and deep
cantilevered soffitts where the metal wraps under the entryway and
extends in a continuous line into the interior atrium.
Hidden beneath the perforated metal wall system is a base layer of
extruded aluminum with a black Kynar finish that provides a light
absorbing backdrop for showcasing the holes and LED lighting.
Saitowitz said his firm's design has two different characteristics.
"Its light at night is internal. Its light during the day is
external."
While there may be more economical ways to fashion a building's
skin, the value of the metal cladding is as much in its versatility
and durability as in its compatibility with the building's
purpose.
"Metal is a perfect symbol for the coming together of the museum's
program-marrying old with new, durability and stability with
progress and new direction," said Todd Smith, director of the Tampa
Museum of Art.
With the museum's collection ranging from antiquities to
contemporary art, "we wanted a physical presence that is, on the
one hand, simple in its design, but contemporary in its
aesthetics," Smith said.
The LED lighting feature is a welcome bonus."We are embracing the
electronics of the exterior as the museum builds its own exhibition
and collections of works in this new media."
Mary Estes is principal of Estes and Co., Tampa.