Green Walls Enliven Exterior

Green Walls Enliven Exterior LiveWall system greens the outside of the Golden 1 Center.

As fans approach Golden 1 Center, home of the NBA’s Sacramento (CA) Kings, they see living symbols of the Kings’ commitment to sustainability: seven green walls totaling 4,800 sq. ft. and featuring 5,400 plants. “The inspired idea was to make the building look as if it rests on the green wall, rooting the arena in the landscape and extending the landscape from the new plaza up to the walls of the arena itself,” said James Haig Streeter, landscape design lead, AECOM, Los Angeles. The arena, he explained, “appears to emerge from the landscape, and visitors see vibrant bands of green that change with different sections displaying different plants based on the vary

ing patterns of sun and shade around the building.”

The design and materials of the building’s façade evoke the granite and grandeur of the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains. The green walls are positioned beneath Golden 1 Center’s distinctive reflective aluminum panels, which are etched with 3-in. modernist leaf designs based on photographs of a leafy street in East Sacramento.

The “Million Trees” panels with hundreds of thousands of leaves convey the sense of billowing valley oak-tree canopies on the arena’s exterior. Depending on the time of day and position of the sun, the shadows on the leaves look different, and in combination with the building’s ceramic frit glass, the arena takes on different colors of silver and gold tones. As integrated elements, the glass, metal panels, green walls at the base of the building, and the landscape of the surrounding plaza (including a walnut grove) make the facility come alive.

GREEN-WALL SOLUTION In evaluating green-wall system options for the arena project, AECOM designers considered several critical success factors. “We wanted a proven, triedand-true system with well-engineered components that could scale up,” said Haig Streeter. “It was important for the green-wall design to provide adequate soil depth and volume to protect the

Far left. As fans approach Golden 1 Center, home of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, they see living symbols of the Kings’ commitment to sustainability through the use of live walls.

Left. On the south side of L Street, the plaza is above street level with a retail area at the base of the building. The plant mixes on the walls emphasize ferns and grasses of the area.

To create an authentic vertical landscape, plant species that are native to the area, or that have aesthetic qualities similar to native plants, were chosen.

plants and keep the walls from drying out in the heat of summer.

“The LiveWall, Nuncia, MI, planter modules are designed and look like window boxes. That makes it a system with features and functions the owners of the team could understand,” he said. “For future maintenance, no system could be easier because you can switch out the module liner inserts with different plants.”

The Sacramento office of BrightView, a landscape-services company, installed the green walls. The installation includes 2,700 LiveWall planter modules. They attach to a unique aluminum rail-and-mounting-track system, which is affixed to the structural wall and secures the planters and integrated irrigation components. PLANT SELECTION For commercial and public applications, landscape architects prefer green walls that are pre-grown. Florasource Ltd, San Clemente, CA, an independent horticulture supply company and LiveWall distributor, provided 5,400 plants in the planter inserts so that the plants would be hearty and ready for installation into the modular planters in September 2016.

AECOM and Florasource selected 18 different plant varieties. To create an authentic vertical landscape, they chose plant species native to the area, or that have aesthetic qualities similar to native plants. To minimize supplemental irrigation requirements, all of the plants are appropriate for the climate. When mature, many of the selected species will grow large enough to cover much of the green-wall components. The exact plant mixes for individual green-wall sections account for variations in prevailing patterns of sun and shade around the arena.

Shade is valued, prized, and beneficial in Sacramento because of the climate. The north side of the building is shaded. That section of green wall has shade-tolerant plants, and that part of the plaza features honey-locust trees for shade and shade-loving plants at grade. The plant palette for the green wall thus complements the plantings in the landscape to take advantage of the shade and increase the amount of shade, and the horizontal and vertical landscape elements harmonize.

On the west side, the foothills terrace area of the plaza is full sun. The green wall there is planted with aromatic spices, including sage and rosemary. The plants create an appealing aromatic sense around and within the space. On the south side of L Street, the plaza is above street level, and there is a retail area along that section of the street at the base of the building, another way to connect the arena and enliven it at street level. The plant mixes on those walls emphasize ferns and grasses.

“Sacramento is full of wonderful green spaces, and our three-acre public plaza that wraps the arena had to be one of them,” said Granger.

It is all coming together at the Golden 1 Center. The tree canopies and plants are filling in. The green walls bring the landscape up from the plaza to the arena, and the green-wall plants in the context of the Million Tree panel design make the arena

come alive in unity with its surroundings. CA

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EDITORS’ CHOICE

Stone veneer

Stone veneer:

Accento Stone bands, Bugnato panels Mix and match Part of the Modern Living series

Accento Stone bands and Bugnato stone veneer panels provide a custom look. Part of the Modern Living series, the bands are available in three profiles: Roccia chiseled stone, Sabbia stucco, and Legna wood look. Measuring 2 in. x 18 in., the bands can be integrated into an overall design or stacked and combined to create a look of their own. The Bugnato panel has a modern look, is available in 8 in. x 12 in. and 8 in. x 24 in., and mixes and matches with the band profiles.

Environmental StoneWorks, Denver Circle 54 estoneworks.com

Mobile app for brick Acme Brick Vision allows users to view the company’s brick product line on building elevations or as a brick sample in close-up view. Users pick an elevation, place brick on the building, and change variables such as mortar color, trim paint color, and roof color. A photo gallery shows enlarged views and adds location photographs.

Acme Brick, Fort Worth, TX Circle 55 brick.com

Brick veneer Metrobrick thin brick veneer has strict sizing to meet the needs of architectural precast, tilt-up, and field-applied applications. Royal Thin Brick is tumbled for a worn/weathered appearance and is most often applied like ceramic tile.

Ironrock, Canton, OH Circle 56 ironrock.com

Drainable wrap Typar drainable Wrap is a durable material that is said to shed more bulk water than traditional products and offers the added efficiency of an integrated drainage plane. The wrap uses a layer of multi-directional polypropylene fibers that diverts bulk water from exterior wall cavities and drains it away from the assembly, preventing potential damage caused by mold and rot. The highly efficient material helps shed water, while meeting or exceeding current code requirements according to ASTM E2273.

FiberWeb Inc., Old Hickory, TN Circle 57 typar.com

Left. Amid familiar fast-food giants at the Mall of Berlin (Germany) is a small but stylish shop that sets itself apart with baskets of fruits and vegetables pointing to a wide choice of freshly made snacks, juices, and salads. Photos: © ERCO GmbH, Sebastian Mayer

Below. Wallwashers provide evenly distributed light on the vertical surfaces, giving the interior a wider and distinctly spacious feel, with a pleasantly bright and welcoming atmosphere.

Healthy Food Tastefully Illuminated Lighting tools create a warm and inviting ambience in a compact setting.

Amid familiar fast-food giants at the Mall of Berlin (Germany) is a small but stylish shop that sets itself apart with baskets of fruits and vegetables pointing to a wide choice of freshly made snacks, juices, and salads. Pea green and white dominate the logo and interior in a concept designed to communicate, in response to the current food trend, that healthy fast food is not a myth. For added appeal, the wide selection of vitamin-packed food is illuminated by flexible ERCO lighting tools to create a warm and inviting ambiance in a compact setting. ERCO’s U.S. headquarters is in Edison, NJ.

The Youfresh shop, opened by Margaretha and Jan Olszewski in the new Mall of Berlin at Leipziger Platz, is testimony that fast food can actually be fresh, healthy, and tasty. The menu offers soups, salads, sandwiches—including vegan options—juices, smoothies, and frozen yogurts. All the food, except the soups, is prepared on the premises and to order, while the salad bar allows customers to create their own preferred versions, dressed with a daily and seasonal selection of healthy toppings. Competing with the salad as a low-calorie snack is the frozen yogurt, which is made in-house using organic milk and served to taste with fruit, muesli, sauces, and other sweet treats. Almost 50 different toppings are neatly arranged at a special station along the side wall at the back of the shop, opposite the dining area.

The narrow food parlor occupies no more than 968 sq. ft. Designed to the original plans drawn up by the interior designers of the Ippolito Fleitz Group from Stuttgart and Berlin, the most prominent interior feature is a white DuPont Corian (Wilmington, DE) counter forming an elongated L-shape; its short section—decorated with fruit, herbs, and an extra-large frozen yogurt display—extends into the mall to connect with passersby.

“The counter simulates progression into the depth of the room,” explained designer Michael Bertram of the Ippolito Fleitz Group. “From a functional aspect, it offers an impressive range of features and catering essentials, such as chiller trays, drink dispensers, salad containers and, of course, the cash point.”

Built with versatility in mind, the designers were careful not to assign specific locations to any feature. “This approach gives the shop operators carte blanche to change decorations and create their own merchandising displays,” the designer added.

Thanks to the ERCO LED lighting tools, maximum flexibility extends all the way to the lighting concept. Built entirely around the Optec product line, using the three light-distribution options—flood, oval flood, and wallwash—the spotlights are mounted on three parallel track sections under the suspended ceiling, achieving uniform ambient lighting throughout the shop, while selected objects are effectively accentuated.

Wallwashers (12 W in warm white) provide evenly distributed light on the vertical surfaces, giving the interior of just under 13 ft. a wider and distinctly spacious feel, with a pleasantly bright and welcoming atmosphere. The menu boards and price lists at the front of the shop are illuminated in bright light to ensure easy reading, while wallwashers at the back bathe the wall in uniform light for a fresh and appetizing presentation of the vast assortment of ingredients at the topping station. The wallwashers are complemented by spotlights with flood and oval-flood distributions that accentuate the elongated counter section. At the checkout, a fixture with flood distribution provides ambient lighting while preventing glare on the screen. For emphasis, the oversized plastic frozen-yogurt model near the entrance is illuminated by an Optec flood, aiming to whet the customers’ appetite.

In versions with different light distributions, Optec covers the full bandwidth of lighting requirements in the shop. Based on a meticulous design, the lighting concept aims to accentuate the freshness aspect of the Youfresh brand and its products while facilitating a flexible response to different presentation scenarios, preparation, and sale. CA

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