Photo: Corey Middleton
With its design that integrates boxy forms clad with metal composite material (MCM) and glazing, architecture firm Beecher Walker sought to create a building for Thanksgiving Station 3 in Salt Lake Valley that embodies the innovation associated with prospective tech company tenants.
Jory Walker, principal and president at Beecher Walker, says, “[Tech] companies are out-of-the-box thinkers that challenge the status quo. To attract such cutting-edge companies, the building design had to be just as progressive. So we literally took the typical office box and pushed and pulled it as if the contents were busting out at different junctures. The result is more like an additive and subtractive sculpture piece, hence the use of metal and glass, typical sculpture materials.”
The 150,000-square-foot Thanksgiving Station 3 is the fourth of five buildings at Thanksgiving Station Office Park, a 1,000,000-square-foot mixed-use development that has offices, restaurants, fitness centers, a park and access to public transportation.
To construct the tech-inspired exterior, Noorda Building Envelope Contractor fabricated and installed 14,000 square feet of Mitsubishi Chemical Composites America Inc.’s 4-mm-thick ALPOLIC MCM with a fire-retardant core in two finishes: Mica MZG Grey and clear anodized. For additional durability, the MCM were treated with AGC Chemicals Americas Inc.’s FEVE Lumiflon, a thin, clear coating. For the glazed portions, B&D Glass Inc. installed 47,000 square feet of Kawneer Co. Inc.’s 1600UT curtainwall.
Besides shaping the building’s boxy and sculptural massing, Anthony Lyman, junior partner at Beecher Walker, says the glazing and metal panels embody the reputations of prospective tech company tenants in other ways. “The symbolism of using these materials goes further,” he says. “Just as [tech] companies exhibit vision and light bulb moments, so do the wide spans of glass allow for clear views and an abundance of natural light. And just as these companies exhibit toughness and mettle to break the mold in their industries, so does the use of metal to provide visual and physical strength to the building and define the distinctive lines of the building form.”
