Media Masterpiece

by Jonathan McGaha | March 2, 2014 12:00 am

When Rocco Commisso, founder and CEO of the nation’s eighth largest media company with 4,700 employees in 22 states, Mediacom Communications Corp.[1], decided he wanted to build a new corporate headquarters, he didn’t want just any old building. Commisso wanted a fast-tracked, state-of-the-art facility so his employees would love coming to work. Designed by architect Barry Poskanzer at Poskanzer Skott Architects[2], Ridgewood, N.J., the project was completed in just 25 months from initial meetings to occupancy. Mediacom’s new 110,000-square-foot, three-story headquarters and 12,000-square-foot utility building sits on top of a hill on 30 of 200 acres of existing farmland in Blooming Grove, N.Y., and features 360-degree open views.

Completed in June 2013, Commisso and his wife Catherine worked closely with Poskanzer on the project. “The thing that was most important to me was that we create an environment where we were able to bring the different offices we were operating in together, and for the first time in the history of our company, have everybody under the same roof,” Commisso says. “And that’s exactly what we created.”

Architectural Counterpoint

The building, which required the intensive use of metal and glass, is a visual architectural counterpoint to the typical farm building construction that exists in the area. “The use of metal panel and glass, these are some of the most contemporary materials in a world of traditional wood-frame housing and indigenous farm buildings,” Poskanzer says.

“The shapes themselves are an homage to modern cubist architecture and farmland simplicity.” The building shape is one that Poskanzer thought would grab the hill and the eye. “It’s an exaggeration of a piece of a curve that looks like it’s endless and keeps moving,” he notes. “Even though it stops where the building ends, it feels as if the curve is continuing.”

A ground extension of the building features two fin metal walls on the west and south that tether the structure to the land. The metal walls act as gateways separating the natural meadow foreground from the more manicured buildings, parking and landscape features. “The key design,” Poskanzer explains, “is capturing the hilltop, preserving light and views for the users, and not feeling like you are driving across a sea of parking to get to the building.”

At the main entrance is a 65-foot-long port cochere welcoming guests from the parking lot into the bright glass, three-story lobby. The blue silo, which is the dominant element on the southwest side of the building, contains three stories of conference rooms.

Contemporary Composites

Fairfield, N.J.-based Fairfield Metal[3] fabricated and installed a total of 74,500 square feet of composite metal panels for the building envelope, to enhance interior spaces and create special features in three basic colors of white, silver and blue. Eastman, Ga.-based Alcoa Architectural Products[4] supplied 38,000 square feet of its Reynobond aluminum composite material (ACM) metal wall panels in Pure White; 29,000 square feet in Silver Metallic; and 7,500 square feet in Konig Blue; in addition to 2,000 square feet in Anodic Clear for the lobby. The exterior panels were installed using Fairfield Metal’s CFM system-Caulk Joint System, and the interior panels were installed using Fairfield Metal’s RFM system-pressure-equalized rainscreen system with an open joint to create a shadow look.

The headquarters building features 60,000 square feet of 3-inch
Thermax CI[5] from Dow Building Solutions[6], Midland, Mich., and Henry Blueskin VP 160[7] from El Segundo, Calif.-based Henry Co[8]. Additionally, the utility building includes 3,200 square feet of 3-inch insulated panels from Metl-Span[9], Lewisville, Texas.

According to Luigi Colella, partner at Fairfield Metal, they often had to verify the building’s measurements to make sure the panels would line up with each other. Fairfield installed sunshades from Construction Specialties Inc.[10], Cranford, N.J., on the curved side of the building that were mounted approximately 3 feet into the building to the segmented steel so they protruded out through the ACM panels. “We had a lot of measuring and tweaking of the sunshades to try and make them look like they were curved throughout the whole side of the building,” he says.

A variety of materials were considered to achieve the project goal, including multiple shapes, design flexibility, high durability, low maintenance, high thermal resistance, high-tech appearance and contrast with the natural environment. Composite metal panels, together with the finely detailed glass lights, provided the desired balance. “One of the most challenging aspects of the project was our desire for design flexibility to adapt to the various curved walls and unique shapes presented in the building,” Poskanzer says. “Composite metal panels gave us that flexibility.”

The same fabricated metal panels that were used on the exterior were used on the interior, specifically the three-story lobby and two-story atrium. “The lobby is one of the nicest spaces I’ve ever been able to design,” Poskanzer says. “We were given the opportunity to design the room and the stairs and the elevators and the finishes, including the reception desk. Rather than being an added piece of furniture, the desk is an integral part of the architecture of the building. A great opportunity, rarely given to an architect.”

 

Award-Winning Design

Enhancing the contrast between the man-made aesthetic and natural farmland, the project features a pristine geometric dining/entertaining terrace on the southwest side that is defined by a semicircular retaining wall of indigenous stones. The contemporary building combines deep exterior metal walls with defined openings for private offices on the north and east, and a curved metal and glass wall with continuous views for open work station loft areas on the south and west. “Architecturally, it’s just a really nice project,” Colella says.

Paying homage to modernism and the area’s agricultural context, the building’s significant design feature is the conference silo. The headquarters provides a high-quality work environment for more than 350 staff, along with multiple conference rooms, training areas, cafeteria and fitness center. It also includes a technology and engineering lab and national field support dispatch center. Sustainable features include electronic control systems for water, lighting and mechanicals, along with sound transmission, audio visual and acoustics.

The Mediacom headquarters has been recognized with a number of awards, including the 2013 Peer Design Gold Award (built project category) from the Architects League of Northern New Jersey; a citation in the 2013 Excellence in Design Awards from AIA Westchester Hudson Valley; and a Peer Design Bronze Award (un-built project category) in 2012 from AIA Newark & Suburban. The project also recently received Bronze recognition in the built category from the Society of American Registered Architects.

Photos: Alan Schindler

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/media-masterpiece/

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