Leon Cheng, AIA, of Arquitectonica International Corp., says his firm wanted to incorporate red in its design for Olume apartment building due to the color’s local prominence and association with the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco 49ers professional football team. “We wanted to take the idea of redness but turn it more toward earth tones so there wasn’t an immediate brightness to the building all around,” he says. “[The varying façade depths] were accentuated with the color palette.”
Ilon Keilson, of Arquitectonica International, shared project management duties with Cheng. Keilson says his firm referenced many colors, variations of colors and combinations of colors. “We were asked to re-think the exterior,” he says. “We were asked to create a more vibrant landmark.”
The multilayered façade was designed to appear as an abstract series of colored metal cubes. “From a thematic standpoint, we wanted to introduce dynamism through depth,” Cheng says. “We wanted to reflect diversity in the neighborhood and in residential buildings.”
Pacific Erectors Inc. installed 40,700 square feet in 1,400 panels of 3A Composites USA Inc.’s 4-mm Alucobond Plus aluminum composite material (ACM) in five custom colors: 19,200 square feet in Cajun Clay; 6,400 square feet in Baked Terracotta; 6,200 square feet in Pumice Stone; 5,500 square feet in Burnt Russet; and 3,400 square feet in Baked Clay.
Pacific Erectors installed the ACM at five depths between minus-8 inches and plus-8 inches with Keith Panel Systems Co. Ltd.’s KPS System A Pressure-Equalized Rainscreen System. Glazing is set back 2 inches to 8 inches from the ACM.
Cheng says the aesthetic of relief is often challenging to incorporate in sales-driven projects. “Doing so has a direct correlation with sellable square footage in the interiors, so we began playing with the exterior skin to maximize the perception of depth and movement without impacting sellable area,” he says.
Paul Dalzell, operations manager at Keith Panels Systems, says the various depths and panel colors made the project complex. “We used 3-D modeling to determine the shape and appropriate color of returns,” he says. “The part count on this project was enormous.”
Jeff Young, project manager at Pacific Erectors, says his company assisted the design team in determining where colors should transition in the articulation. “Keith Panels Systems gave us an extensive set of shop drawings that basically served as an erector set,” he says. “Our biggest challenge was installing all of the colors.”
The 12-story, 138,512-square- foot, L-shaped apartment building was designed to achieve LEED Silver certification. It opened in March 2016. Features include a garden area on the second floor with 6,000 square feet of green space and a 4,000-square-foot rooftop deck with an entertainment area, fitness center, dog run and views of Mission Bay and downtown San Francisco. The building has 121 rental units including studio, onebedroom and two-bedroom apartments. There are two levels of subterranean parking.
Owner: Monogram Residential Trust Inc., Plano, Texas
Developers: Monogram Residential Trust, Plano, and Martin Building Co., San Francisco
General contractor: Build Group Inc., San Francisco
Architect: Arquitectonica International Corp., Los Angeles
Installer: Pacific Erectors Inc., Rocklin, Calif.
Fabricator: Keith Panel Systems Co. Ltd., North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, www.keithpanel.com
Metal wall panels: Alucobond by 3A Composites USA Inc., Davidson, N.C., www.alucobondusa.com
Photo: Daniel Lunghi Photography
