Metal Renovation and Retrofit
Grand Award
EMIT CAMPUS
Photos courtesy Nic Lehoux
Shrouded in a scrim of weathered, perforated steel, EMIT Technologies’ headquarters outside Sheridan, Wyo., pioneers a new, place-based approach to campus planning. Weaving together cutting-edge technology and a community-focused ethos, the structure is almost entirely self-produced on site, and it exemplifies the people and raw materials active in the process. The new campus, at nearly 11,148 m2 (120,000 sf), consolidates the operations of four existing metal fabrication facilities and introduces amenities accessible to over 100 employees as well as the general public. United by their Wyoming heritage, CLB and EMIT collaborated to craft a campus intimately tied to the Rocky Mountain West, which can continue to serve as a social, commercial, and industrial hub for the greater Sheridan community.
A scarf-like steel facade, also custom-fabricated and engineered by EMIT, weaves the structure’s additive exterior into a unified whole. Suspended away from the surface of the building, this laser-perforated scrim forges a transparent-yet-tactile connection between the campus’s outward appearance and the materials and methods used in the manufacturing within.
Creative Use of Metal
1120 G St.
Photos courtesy Ulf E. Wallin
Móz Designs’ Backlit Laser Cut Keyslot Wall & Ceiling Panels span more than 464.5 m2 (5,000 sf) in the newly renovated lobby. Bringing Rogers Partners Architects’ vision to life, Móz Designs modified the artwork provided to ensure the rigidity of the panels and continuity of the design along the wall and ceiling, with lighting consultation for the best glow. Showcasing a custom powder-coat finish, the entire system was designed and manufactured ready for installation upon arrival with prefabricated panels, mounting brackets, lighting, and acrylic backing to create an internal backlit glow.
The laser-cut addition cultivates historical significance in the lobby space as it depicts the iconic L’Enfant urban plan developed for President George Washington in 1791. The custom design reflects Washington, D.C.’s historical urban development while unifying the lobby and connecting the new and old. Customizing the otherwise standard commercial space, the map is the distinguishing design element in the high-traffic entryway. The metal contrasts with the softer interior accents to distinguish the entryway from the spaces designed and designated for visitors to meet and socialize.
Insulated Metal Panels (IMPs)
Extra Space Storage in Hempstead
Photos courtesy Elizabeth Leidel
The project showcases the innovative use of insulated metal panels (IMPs) at the newly constructed Extra Space Storage facility in Hempstead, NY. Spanning 10,423 m2 (112,188 sf)
and standing seven stories tall, the facility integrates Norbec’s Norex-H and Norex-L panels to create a visually striking and functional building. With 1,382 climate-controlled units, the facility, which opened in March of 2024, exemplifies modern construction ingenuity, offering secure and accessible storage solutions to meet the evolving needs of urbanization, downsizing trends, and e-commerce. Managed by Extra Space Storage, a leader in the self-storage industry, the project represents a commitment to excellence and reliability. The facility serves the communities of Hempstead, Uniondale, West Hempstead, Garden City, and many more surrounding areas. The project provides the community with an aesthetically pleasing building, avoiding the look of a giant freezer box. The insulated panels with multiple color schemes and various lengths and panel orientations give the building the look the city of Hempstead required. The IMPs give the designer flexibility with an architectural look in a workable budget.
Metal Composite Materials
University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work & Smart Hospital Building
Photos courtesy Wade Griffiths
As University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) continues its multi-decade transformation from a commuter-based campus to a Tier-1 urban research university with 40,000-plus students, this new cross-discipline academic building creates place and activates the campus’ southern edge. Coupled with a recently completed health sciences research building, the two structures join to form an iconic gateway along a major arterial street.
In reception of pedestrian traffic flows of thousands of students from perimeter parking lots, the building corner lifts to allow free passage via a shaded breezeway, inviting traffic into a landscaped quad. Programmatically, the building stitches together two seemingly disparate programs, Social Work and the Smart Hospital, an extensive skills and simulation component for the College of Nursing. United around a shared mission of well-being, the new building creates an energized hub of flexible, technology-enriched learning spaces, research labs, officing, and student collaboration spaces.
The School of Social Work & Smart Hospital Building joins an existing research building to form a gateway on the campus’ southern edge. The shared palette of cut Texas limestone, glass, and two-tone metal panels allows the structures to dialogue across a conjoining plaza, while complimenting the broader heavy masonry campus material palette. Metal is a wonderful complement to masonry and feels at home with natural stone or clay brick.
Metal Roofing
Bandwidth Campus Outbuildings
Photos courtesy PAC-CLAD | Petersen
Technology company Bandwidth based its headquarters inside a 51,097 m2 (550,000 sf)
five-story office building, which includes outbuildings on its campus. The project features an intriguing form and represents the North Carolina roots upon which it sits. With a scale that rises gradually with recessed higher floors, the building intertwines with the surrounding campus and natural landscape, rather than overpowering them. Like every building on the campus, Bandwidth’s office features a front porch design concept reflective of Southern architecture that speaks to the importance of home, warmth, and family. With a range of work and lifestyle amenities, including convenient access to a Montessori-based school for children, the campus is welcoming and unmistakably hospitality-driven. The lobby of the office building is a five-story atrium made of carved wood, which forms a staircase capped by a skylight and creates the impression of climbing a tree and ascending into the clouds.
A metal roof was chosen for durability, low maintenance, and strength, and sustainable elements in this project include the graphite finish, as is rated as a “cool color” by the Cool Roof Racing Council.
Pre-engineered Metal Buildings
Fulldraw Winery
Photos courtesy Likeness Studio – Austin, Tex.
Fulldraw Vineyard, located in the heart of the California Central Coast wine country’s Templeton Gap, boasts a new winery that sits sentry to 40.5 ha (100 acres) of established vineyards. The first phase of the new facility includes a fermentation building with covered crush pad, administrative and employee spaces, and a barrel aging and case goods storage building. Responding to site topography and the climatic influences of the sun and prevailing breezes, the steel framed “barn” houses open-air fermentation spaces that foster cross-ventilation, utilize night cooling, and provide a well-lit working environment with ample natural daylight.
An integrated photovoltaic (PV) system is planned to minimize reliance on utility provided energy. The simple configuration supports, and help facilitates production and flexible experimentation of beautifully balanced Rhone-style wines with an annual production of 10,000 cases at full build-out.
Performance, directness, and simplicity were key goals for the design of this phased campus building. Inspired by local barns and farm structures, these metal buildings are essentially the bedrock of the vineyard. Maintaining the agrarian vernacular was important, both in their form and scale, while also having an elegance that provides contrast to the agricultural setting.
Single Skin Wall Panels (smooth)
11 W
Photos courtesy Lincoln Barbour
The dynamic facade transcends functionality and performance, embodying the dynamic and elegant spirit of the building. The metal, a custom warm toned bronze with a hairline texture, changes in reflectivity, color and depth depending on time of day and angle of interaction, as it uses crystal clear basecoat technology. The building itself is welcome as a part of the investment in the areas 24/7 use. Located at the epicenter of Downtown Portland’s West End neighborhood, 11 W offers a dynamic mix of office space, luxury residences and high-end residential living. Designed by renowned architecture firm ZGF, every inch has been optimized, from the custom metal facade to large plate glass to interior selections that combine beauty, health, and function for optimal live and work use. 11 W was designed and built as the most functional, forward-thinking mixed-use building in the city. The level of architecture, detail, materials, and amenities is simply unmatched.
This building was designed to rejuvenate this area of downtown Portland. By combining health, wellness, security and incredible design, this building, along with its sister 12 W bring vitality to the area 24/7. A modern metal facade was used to outwardly express the modern wonder cased inside. ZGF’s deep understanding of this materiality and technology allowed them to further define the context of what is inside the building through massing and design. The vertical fins taper as they go up the facade, helping to visually separate retail from office and residential, offering a semiotic understanding of what lies beneath the bronze. Further, panels are fabricated in different angles and directions, capturing the metallic essence of the surface and underscoring the elegance of the amenities and spaces. The east and west facades also feature sharkfin corrugated metal, further breaking up the massing and allowing the colors of the metal to interplay in interesting aways.
Solar Integration with Metal
Brightsmith Coaters
Photos courtesy Scalo Solar Solutions
The owners of this building wanted to make their facility more energy efficient, so they selected InSpire HP solar collector panels for the wall as well as a PV solar array for the roof. A total of 2,508 m2 (27,000 sf) of InSpire HP solar air heating panels (manufactured by ATAS) were installed on the south facing wall of this building. The high performing panels were mounted a few inches from the building’s outer wall. The precision perforations in the wall panels allow outside air to travel through the face of the panel. Solar heated air at the surface of the panel is drawn through the perforations, where it rises between the newly created plenum and enters the building’s central ventilation system or supply fan.
InSpire HP utilizes a unique selective surface that has high solar absorption and low emittance ratings which makes the system even more effective than traditional InSpire panels, which have a 70 percent PVDF painted finish. The Select Blue color of InSpire HP was chosen by Brightsmith Coaters for their building. The system also shades the building structure in the summer months thereby reducing the internal temperature of the building.
Innovative Use of an On-site Roll former
Cabin on the Lake
Photo courtesy SDI
This cabin on the lake looks like it has been in the woods for years. It looks like real wood up close and from a distance. The homeowner wanted a new cabin on the lake that was maintenance-free and fit the site.
When it came to the project goals and how metal was used to achieve those goals, the owner wanted a product that looked like real wood but had the performance of steel. It will be maintenance free for many years. Metal was used for this project due to its durability and beauty.
The sustainable elements in this project include steel from Steel Dynamics – Flat Rolled Group, produced with 80 percent recycled steel which has one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world.
Single Skin Wall Panels (Ribbed)
Spring Street Commercial Center
Photos courtesy Studio 101 West
The Spring Street Commercial project consists of two separate free-standing commercial buildings for two different end-users on a single lot. The main street-facing building was envisioned as a restaurant/whiskey tasting room, while the rear building would house a commercial car wash drive-thru facility.
This commercially zoned vacant site sat within the City’s Redevelopment Zone, which came with a unique set of entitlement challenges. The City’s Development Review Committee rejected the design initial proposal, which called for a traditional “Spanish Revival” style of architecture, in favor of a more “Agrarian” approach. The design team revised the entire project vernacular to reflect a more “Modern-Agrarian” building aesthetic, which directly informed the use of contemporary materials, namely corrugated metal, cor-ten steel, and standing-seam panels in various colors throughout the project.
Durability, cost-effectiveness, and quick installation were the reasons metal was used on this project.