Ascent Concept #1

WINTER 2016

WWW.PCI.ORG

MID-CENTRAL EDITION

ASCENT ®

DESIGNING WITH PRECAST

MASS TRANSIT ISSUE

Designer’s Notebook – Terra Cotta-Faced Precast Architect Profile: Matt Jobin of Rich & Associates Building: CONRACs Speeding Mass Transit Projects

ASCENT ®

DESIGNING WITH PRECAST

New Faces. Entertaining Places.

HELLO! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dawn Parker and I am the new executive editor of Ascent Magazine, as well as the new Managing Director, Market Development at PCI. My background includes serving as the Region Director for PCI of Illinois and Wisconsin; where I honed my knowledge of precast, working in the economic development field with multiple targeted industries, as well as spending several years in the construction industry.

But, enough about me, let’s talk about the rest of the team here at Ascent. Producing a magazine takes the work of many and couldn’t come to fruition without the contributions of my esteemed colleagues. First, I want to thank and welcome Jim Lewis, the new Editor of Ascent magazine and the Manager, Architectural Services at PCI, his architectural background made a huge contribution to this first issue that we produced together. I see an exciting future for Ascent based on our collaborative partnership. Additionally, on the team is another new face, Brenda Banks, who is our editorial assistant and the new Marketing Assistant at PCI. Are you seeing a theme here…New. Fresh. Visionary.

Our purpose here at Ascent magazine is to bring you a variety of building projects that you can explore, design and build with precast concrete. As you will notice in this issue, we are exploring an assortment of entertainment venues. We all have our favorites; sports, players, DAWN PARKER, MBA

teams, getting lost in the beauty of a theatrical production, or bowling on league night.

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Imagine enjoying your favorite form of entertainment in a setting that is unique, built to last,

DPARKER@PCI.ORG

comfortable and embodies all of the qualities of a high performance structure; versatility, efficiency and resiliency. You will find all of this portrayed in the following pages.

If you noticed the “built to last” in that last paragraph and how that applies to a precast

New. Fresh.

Visionary.

concrete structure, it also applies to the rest of the team here at Ascent Magazine. Craig Shutt, who has been with Ascent for many years, as our primary writer and managing editor and Tressa Park who handles the Ascent layout, graphics and publishing, both are an integral part of our magazine.

Our Ascent team looks forward to delivering you, a magazine that is relevant, exciting and allows you to DREAM of what you can achieve with precast concrete.

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ASCENT, WINTER 2016

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PROJECT CASE STUDY

LOOKING BEHIND

the Veil

Intricate ‘veil’ precast façade creates dramatic appearance for The Broad in Los Angeles

— Craig A. Shutt

Creating a dramatic design statement for a new art museum produces two key challenges: provide the functional display needs required for a sizable art collection and enclose that space with an impressive appearance that holds its own against neighbors with formidable aesthetic designs that could overwhelm it. To achieve these goals, designers of The Broad in Los Angeles created a “vault” to hold the art and then wrapped it in a “veil” constructed of more than 2,470 honeycomb-shaped pieces of Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC).

“All of our projects are unique and use the materials that best support the overall concept of the building,” says Kevin Rice, project director and associate principal at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the design architect on the project. “This is our first project using GFRC, though we will be using it in different ways on other upcoming projects.”

The “vault,” which stores the 2,000-work collection, was designed contrary to many such

‘The veil is matte and mineral, absorbing and controlling light through its coral-like apertures.’

layouts, he notes. “Instead of being relegated to the basement or back of the house, it becomes the protagonist of the design, a hovering, opaque mass that shapes the lobby below and provides the literal ground for the galleries above.”

This space works with the “veil,” which introduces the facility to visitors and helps the smaller building stand out beside the dramatic Disney Hall. “The five-side veil nests over the vault and acts as a foil to Disney’s exuberant form,” Rice explains. “Where Disney is reflective and metallic, the veil is matte and mineral, absorbing and controlling light through its coral-like apertures.” All of the museum’s spaces exist between these two elements, with circulation flowing under, around, and through them.

GFRC ADDS INDIRECT LIGHTING The GFRC veil, constructed on a steel lattice, provides indirect lighting to the galleries inside, creating a dramatic visual setting to display the art. The veil rises at the corners to direct visitors through the entry into an active lobby and bookshop. They then are drawn to an escalator and whisked up into the 23-foot-tall, column-free viewing spaces.

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The façade also features a funnel-like “oculus” point in which the GFRC honeycomb warps inward, creating a hole at its center that provides views to the exterior at strategic points. “Conceptually, the idea of the veil is that it modulates the light from the top and the sides of the top-floor gallery, and allows glimpses and connections to and from the city,” says Rice. “Due to conservation

THE BROAD LOCATION

Los Angeles, Calif.

PROJECT TYPE

Art museum

concerns for the art, tight controls on the amount and types of daylight that could penetrate were

SIZE

required, leading to development of the shapes of the panels and openings and the tolerances to

120,000 square feet

which they were fabricated.”

COST

Designers initially considered using a total precast concrete system for the façade, as it would

$140 million (plus $19 million for plaza and streetscape improvements)

have minimized trades on the site but the seismic requirements for handling the weight and

ARCHITECT

the complexity of the molding process for that situation led to the use of a lighter system with

Diller Scofidio Renfro, New York, N.Y.

steel tubing and GFRC connected to it. “This resulted in a lighter, simpler, and more aesthetically

EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT

pure system.”

“GFRC proved to be the most cost-effective of all the materials analyzed, while meeting the

Gensler, Los Angeles OWNER

The Broad, Los Angeles, Calif

schedule and durability requirements,” says David Pakshong, Arts & Culture Practice leader at

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER

Gensler, which served as the executive architect on the project.

Nabih Youssef & Associates, Los Angeles, Calif.

The material offered the plasticity of design required for the three-story building, adds Mark Hildebrand, president and chief engineer at Willis Construction, who provided the GFRC components. “GFRC could be manufactured in the quality-controlled environment to ensure the accuracy of all the different shapes,” he says. “The sprayed process of GFRC has the ability to be formed on

CONTRACTOR

MATT Construction, Santa Fe Springs, Calif.

PCI-CERTIFIED PRECASTER

a curvilinear surface without additional back forms or the concern of the cement slumping. GFRC

Willis Construction Co., San Juan Bautista, Calif.

proved to be the only choice to meet these design demands.”

GFRC COMPONENTS

The high flexural capacity of the GFRC skin ensured the strength necessary for the unique shapes to work structurally. The skin strength and durability allowed smaller tube framing to be used for the skins. The smaller tube frames in turn helped to accommodate the tight tolerances

2,470 panels, encompassing 93,220 square feet. Average panel had a surface area of 38 square feet. 2.5- by 15-foot projected panel surface

needed to fit the panels onto the frame. The panel strength also met the service-life and durability requirements needed at the ground floor, at pedestrian level.

ASCENT, WINTER 2016

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PROJECT CASE STUDY

Looking Behind the Veil

Intricate ‘veil’ precast façade creates dramatic appearance for The Broad in Los Angeles

by Craig A. Shutt

“The veil is matte and mineral, absorbing and controlling light through its coral-like apertures.”

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ASCENT, WINTER 2016

ASCENT, WINTER 2016

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PROJECT CASE STUDY

‘‘

The veil is matte

and mineral, absorbing and

controlling light through its coral-like

’’

apertures.

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ASCENT, WINTER 2016

“The veil is matte and mineral, absorbing and controlling light through its coral-like apertures

t es.”

LOOKING BEHIND

Intricate ‘veil’ precast façade creates dramatic appearance for The Broad in Los Angeles

THE VEIL

by Craig A. Shutt

ASCENT, WINTER 2016

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WINTER 2016

WWW.PCI.ORG

MID-CENTRAL EDITION

ASCENT ®

DESIGNING WITH PRECAST

MASS TRANSIT ISSUE

Designer’s Notebook – Terra Cotta-Faced Precast Architect Profile: Matt Jobin of Rich & Associates Building: CONRACs Speeding Mass Transit Projects

WINTER 2016

WWW.PCI.ORG

MID-CENTRAL EDITION

ASCENT ®

DESIGNING WITH PRECAST

MASS TRANSIT ISSUE

Designer’s Notebook – Terra Cotta-Faced Precast Architect Profile: Matt Jobin of Rich & Associates Building: CONRACs Speeding Mass Transit Projects

color palette