PROJECT
daylighting
The 14,500-sq.-ft. Art for Art’s Sake building is a complete envelope system that serves as a light source day and night using UniQuad panels. Inset. Designers created an illuminated cube sitting on top of a glass box by cladding the building with panels in ice-white matte over ice-white matte with a U-Factor of 0.26.
Lighting Up The Arts Community Non-profit community studio becomes its own work of art with daylighting panels.
F
or local architects Stitch Design Shop, creating a
Designed as an economic catalyst for neighborhood
“We asked ourselves: How can we make the building
new facility for artists in a dilapidated section of
growth, the 14,500-sq.-ft. Art for Art’s Sake (AFAS) build-
glow and compliment the sculpture park outside, while
downtown Winston-Salem, NC, was a tall order.
ing features two galleries, an art center for community
also making it the diffused-light source for artists and
A city known for its creative expression needed some-
education, artist studios for rent, an AFAS board room,
functions taking place inside the building?” said Sebas-
thing unique. More than 4,860-sq.-ft. of Lake Forest, IL-
event space, leased office space, and a half-acre outdoor
tian. “When we saw The Eagle Academy, it had such a
based CPI Daylighting’s UniQuad was the solution.
sculpture garden on the building’s front lawn. Together,
richness to it; we knew [the panels] would create a dif-
“We knew it had to be something fresh and bold for
the campus provides a new indoor/outdoor venue for the
fused light in the interior to meet our requirements.”
Winston-Salem, the City of Arts and Innovation,” said
city, furthering the non-profit AFAS mission to “build,
Adam Sebastian, AIA, Stitch Design Group. “Instead of
educate, and celebrate community through art.”
lighting up the building or other cliché things designers
Like Washington, D.C.-based architects Shinberg Levinas Architectural Design, who designed the LEED-Silver Eagle Academy, Stitch Design Shop was
do, we searched and searched for something to make the
AN ARTIST’S INSPIRATION
looking for a material that would promote energy savings
building be the light. CPI Daylighting’s UniQuad offered
While searching for inspiration during the AFAS pre-
and minimize the use of artificial light inside the artist’s
a look we were attracted to and we were able to pitch it to
liminary design phase, Stitch Design Shop came across
studios during daylight hours.
the owner as a complete envelope system that would serve
The Eagle Academy, a public charter preschool in Wash-
That’s when the solution turned to CPI Daylighting.
the function of being a light source day and night,” ex-
ington, D.C., clad almost completely in 11,500-sq.-ft of
With an existing energy model in hand, Stitch designers
plained Sebastian.
UniQuad panels from CPI Daylighting.
knew what type of exterior panel performance they need-
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COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE
SEPTEMBER 2017
commercialarchitecturemagazine.com
