When designing a second location for Premier Self Storage in San Antonio, architect Jeffrey S. Dallenbach, AIA, with San Antonio-based ARCHCON Architecture, chose to use the same vivid color schemes, different material uses and eye-catching concepts to tie back with the original facility, which was the 2010 Self-Storage Facility of the Year overall runner-up in
Mini-Storage Messenger magazine.
The 83,000-square-foot facility is made up of an L-shaped facility that wraps around a 1952 retail center renovated to mirror the storage facility’s design characteristics. “The Class A facility includes adaptive reuse in conjunction with a new eco-friendly building, which is the epitome of sustainable modernity,” says Dallenbach.
Metal plays a major role in the facility’s design. The custom-designed building structure is made up of 85,132 feet of repetitive steel ‘C’ channels and columns that support ‘Z’ purlins to carry the roof and 39,300-square-foot second-floor steel deck. Lateral bracing for the building structure on the interior structural walls were provided by 127,200 square feet of horizontal Galvalume wall sheets, supplied by Houston-based MBCI. Prefinished Corridor wall panels line the building’s interior and frame the grey roll-up metal doors from Temple, Ga.-based Janus International Corp. Additionally, red exposed tube steel stairs and railings emphasized the corners of the two-story structures, which were brought to scale by incorporating pre-finished red banding within a field of Galvalume exterior wall panels.
Horizon Structural Systems Inc., New Braunfels, Texas, supplied the ‘C’ channels and ‘Z’ purlins, while MBCI also supplied 29,300 square feet of metal wall panels and 51,000 square feet of standing seam roofing. ARCHCON Architecture designed the solar shading, tube steel stairs and railings, which were all custom fabricated by Lobo Steel, Adkins, Texas.
The four-building site incorporates two two-story climate-controlled buildings and two single-story ambient buildings for drive-up access, in addition to meeting the needs of drive-through 18-wheeler access. The new retail and storage complex revitalizes a dreary neighborhood and meets the unique needs of the adjacent Fort Sam Houston Army Post, Dallenbach explains.
The primary design goal was to continue the brand image for the Premier facilities, utilizing an abstract yet playful office as the eye-catching focal point, says Dallenbach. “A vertical red tower draws you to the facility and the red cap of the office slices across the stucco entry element to create true ‘bleeding edge’ architecture. Environmentally conscious design techniques that incorporate recyclable materials, green insulated glazing in a
‘Mondrian like’ pattern, solar shading, a water catchment irrigation cistern, and brilliant stucco are not only ‘green’ in color, but ‘green’ to the environment.”
Natural light, motion sensors and lighting timers, bring additional energy efficiency to the facility.
Premier Self Storage, San Antonio
Architect: ARCHCON Architecture, San Antonio
Fabricator/steel erector: Lobo Steel, Adkins, Texas
Metal roof and wall panels: MBCI, Houston, www.mbci.com
Roll-up metal door: Janus International Corp., Temple, Ga., www.janusintl.com
Structural steel: Horizon Structural Systems Inc., New Braunfels, Texas, www.horizonstructural.com
