Offset floorplates and metal panels protruding at angles in a pattern change shading and colors based on daylight. The architectural features meet functional and aesthetic goals for the Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision in San Francisco. Overhangs and the articulated panels provide shading for the building. Additionally, the skewed floorplates form outdoor balconies.
Skewed floorplates and angled panels meet many goals for UCSF’s Department of Ophthalmology
Photo: Tim Griffith, courtesy of SmithGroup
The facility houses the University of California, San Francisco’s (UCSF) Department of Ophthalmology. It comprises two connected buildings: a five-story clinic with offset floorplates and articulated metal panels and 12-story office tower. The clinic portion, clad in bronze-colored panels, partially wraps around the office tower, which has white, precast concrete wall panels.
To design the floorplates and articulated panels, which are set at various angles and form patterns on the facades, architects at SmithGroup in San Francisco completed a solar insolation analysis.
Juhee Cho, principal at SmithGroup, says, “By doing the solar analysis on a model, we could articulate the metal panels and even the floorplates, skewing them; there is a push and pull of the floorplates. One of my favorite things is you see the variation, you see the push and pull, the offsetting, the shadow and the self-shading. But also, you see the richness the articulation brings to this façade. I think articulation is what makes this project so unique.”
As consequences of shifting the floorplates on the clinic building, overhangs provide shading to floors below and there are outdoor balconies at each floor.
“The push and pull of the floorplates created the balconies and self-shading for the floors and, with that, we created this dynamic interior/exterior connection,” Cho says.
In addition to its practical purpose, shading is also an important part of the building’s appearance. In particular, the articulated metal panels create a range of shaded and highlighted looks, depending on angles daylight reflects off them.
“The metal surface design enhances the quality of the reflections throughout the day,” Cho says. “You have this really great color tone variation throughout the day, and it also enhances the reflection light makes on the façade.”
One project goal was to clearly differentiate the clinic and office tower. Bronze panels on the clinic building contrast with the white, concrete-clad office tower.
“Accentuating the two different programs, the positioning of them and their juxtaposition was important,” Cho says. “To demonstrate the two components, the two programs, bring them together, but really showcase each of them separately in terms of being really grounded at the site, was very much a wish. So, you have what’s very clearly the office tower, and you have very clearly the clinic.”
To build the articulated facades, Metal Design Systems Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, fabricated 60,000 square feet of Davidson, N.C.-based 3A Composites USA Inc.’s ALUCOBOND PLUS metal composite material (MCM) into 2,000 flush panels and 400 articulated panels. The panels are coated with Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries Inc.’s Duranar Vari-Cool MXL Sunstorm Lexus Bronze Mica with a clear top coating.
Pacific Erectors Inc. in Rocklin, Calif., installed the panels and a Z-support/shim system that the panels are attached to.