Photo: Cameron Campbell, Intergrated Studio
Acutely angled, metal-clad forms on a building exterior express Broken Arrow Wear LLC’s branding and company culture. The T-shirt printing and embroidery business was created with an addition to, and retrofit of, a former fast-food restaurant.
Brent Schipper, AIA, LEED AP, IIDA, principal at ASK Studio, says, “The structure remains simple, a continuation of a humble wood frame. The envelope is a combination of new and existing, but the form is a derivation of the company’s name: Broken Arrow. The street façade is an exclusive narrative conveyed through an amalgam of angles with conspicuous breaks. The angular planes are fashioned from curtainwall, stainless steel shingles and metal panels.”
The metal envelope was selected to advance the drama of the geometry, Schipper says. “This is done through color, texture and reflectivity. The black corrugated panels are used as a frame for the other metals. The highly regulated and repetitive lines fix the points of the orthogonal building, while the contrasting texture and glimmer of the stainless steel is applied in a canted fashion, and the soffit aspires to an even more complex warped plane. The three metal components of the building skin each serve a particular element of the structure’s expression. Each represent plane and light uniquely, while remaining in concert.”
The owners, Mari Coppola and Kortni Remer, wanted the design to communicate company culture and branding. “The clients, a mother and daughter, wanted the building to convey the creativity and fun of their business and its culture,” Schipper says. “They wanted to be seen in a building which had a narrative based solely on their business and their successes. Metal allows an inimitable form with a complex alchemy of materials, all of which are metal. The form represents the company and the seemingly disparate materials that work in concert represent the mother/daughter duo. The building represents extraordinary women, their business and its brand through architecture that aspires to be more than a decorated shed.”
The floorplan of the 5,500-square-foot building is based on an open office, and sales and meeting spaces in the taller addition portion of the building. “Private offices, break areas and building necessities are fit into the existing volume,” Schipper says. “The views of green space and thoroughfares to the south and east are exploited, while the fenestration oriented toward neighboring auto dealerships and auto repair facilities are minimized and controlled. The organization is a public to private datum from front to back, which is mirrored in the hierarchy of space in analogous order.”
For the black corrugated, concealed fastener metal panels, Exterior Sheet Metal Inc. installed Berridge Manufacturing Co.’s HC-16 panels. For the stainless-steel shingles, Exterior Sheet Metal fabricated and installed custom 24-gauge shingles. For soffits, Exterior Sheet Metal installed Longboard Products’ V-Groove metal panels in Dark Fir.
