The new Salvation Army Kroc Center stands out from the Phoenix skyline with an innovatively beautiful and functional design. Gleaming stainless steel rigid mesh panels deliver solar shading for the lobby and main atrium at Arizona’s largest indoor aquatic center. The Phoenix location is one of the largest in the family of centers funded by the Ray and Joan Kroc Foundation in the country, and is seeking LEED Gold certification for sustainable design and energy efficiency. The 147,000-square-foot facility offers three multipurpose sport fields, a full-size football/soccer field, two practice boxing rings, indoor swimming pool, nine volleyball courts, a walking/running track, rock climbing wall, computer labs, wellness center, performing arts center and library.
When the team of Denver-based Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture began designing the project in 2007, they set out to capitalize on the grand southern mountain range views in the area, but also knew they would face challenges in balancing these views with controlling the southern and western sunlight’s effects on the structure. The team researched and found a product through Cambridge Architectural, Cambridge, Md., that allowed the screening of heat gain, while still providing the desired view of the mountains.
“The design of The Salvation Army Phoenix South Mountain Ray
& Joan Kroc Corps Community Center required a unique shading element system which helped reduce heat gain and glare, allowed views to the South Mountains beyond, permitted vision into the building at night and was aesthetically pleasing,” says Steve Blackburn, principal at Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture. “Cambridge Architectural provided the material and system to meet these requirements the design team was looking for and we are very pleased with the resulting application.”
The panels of woven metal fabric are installed in tension, parallel to the structure’s windows, facilitates daylighting while blocking harsh sunlight and the heat that it generates for the interior. The framed rigid shade systems distill and reduce the glare of natural light. Also shading the main lobby and atrium, a Cambridge canopy system of flexible mesh provides shading from the sunlight coming in from above.
Cambridge metal mesh systems can be found throughout the community center as well. In one notable touch, Cambridge mesh graces the cross on the steeple. The front of the building uses the same Cambridge Architectural mesh at the front door to prevent too much sun from glaring into the boxing center. This allows for people to see the popular boxing activity going on at night, but during the daytime, the mesh screens out the abundant heat gain and sunshine that comes every day in Phoenix.
The mesh complements the design of the center, while not taking away from the striking architectural of the center. However, the mesh was not meant to disappear in all cases. The mesh was used in horizontal applications to create shade on the Phoenix Kroc center community patio, an extension to the interior function of the community room to provide shade for the children outside the daycare area. “This mesh was an important product all around the entire Phoenix Kroc Center to provide various levels of the requirements of the design,” says Blackburn.
The system was fabricated with mesh in Cambridge’s Shade pattern, which features large-scale, flexible open weaves that shade and screen structures including facades, parking garages and pavilions.
Cambridge’s Eclipse tension attachment hardware was used to install the Shade product. Tailored edges were provided for expanses of flexible metal fabric in tension. Elegant, custom cut apertures received the metal fabric ends in tubing that was integrated into a bracket-and-structural support design. Tube sizes may vary to emphasize or de-emphasize the attachment. The Eclipse hardware is appropriate for lengths of metal fabric held in tension up to 100 feet. The project team consists of architects Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture, Denver; Dick & Fritsche Design Group, Phoenix; contractor Haydon Building Corp, Phoenix; and installer Pro-Steel, Scottsdale, Ariz.
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Catherine Achey is the communications manager at Cambridge, Md.-based Cambridge Architectural. For more information, visit www.cambridgearchitectural.com.