To simulate the 3-D look of structural steel beams on the front of McDonald’s Corp.’s headquarters, and its famed Hamburger University, Gensler used metal composite material (MCM) panels with a custom attachment system. Structural steel beams relate to other industrial architecture in the West Loop of Chicago. East Coast Metal Systems Inc fabricated the MCM. Tony Lemmon, project manager at East Coast, says, “The best way to achieve this look was by fabricating the panels out of the natural zinc materials.”
To complete the façade, Tuschall Engineering Co. installed two types of MCM with East Coast’s EC-200 Pressure Equalized Rain Screen System.
Tuschall installed 16,000 square feet of Arconic Architectural Products LLC’s Reynobond MCM in Natural Zinc and 1,600 square feet of Mitsubishi Chemical Composites America Inc.’s ALPOLIC MCM in Black. The panels were stiffened to meet weight requirements. In all, 1,122 panels were used to the clad the 60,000-square-foot project.
