Photo: Studio 101 West and Matt Anderson Photography
“The design approach for the Harris Law Building was to explore the transition from the pace and activity of the adjacent regional airport to the natural beauty and agrarian patterns of the Edna Valley,” says George Garcia, AIA, RIBA, principal architect at Garcia Architecture + Design. “While function is a requisite form generator in commercial development, special care was taken to bridge the change in scale from the projects’ programmatic requirements to nearby agricultural uses and vistas. The building is composed of additive and subtractive forms at different scales; cubic masses, broad horizontal lines, and contrasting solid versus transparent planes. These elements vary in height from one to the next, projecting a distinctly rhythmic yet harmonic cadence against the backdrop of rolling foothills and distant mountains.”
To turn Garcia Architecture’s vision into reality, Wicks Roofing Inc. installed 6,000 square feet of Sheffield Metals International’s FWP Flush smooth metal wall and soffit panels. The 12-inch-wide panels have 1-inch-high seams and are made of 24-gauge steel. “The full-height, vertically seamed black panel color was chosen to provide high contrast with the adjacent white smooth cement plaster walls,” Garcia says.
Long-wearing, monochromatic, unitized materials including metal wall panels of varying lengths, complemented with uniform sets of fenestration, were used to express the functional areas while implementing a simplified agrarian palette, Garcia says. “These elements work in concert with smooth cement plaster and tinted glazing, transforming typical building walls into dynamic, pedestrian-scaled, rhythmic elements.”
Inverted seam, flush metal wall panels were used to achieve an aesthetic balance between the new, 12,000-square-foot office building and the more industrial, agrarian metal buildings surrounding the site, Garcia says. “The design goal was to respect the surrounding built environment by utilizing indigenous materials such as metal wall panels, but in a more modern setting.”
