Opened in October 2012, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Cleveland anchors the city’s Uptown district. Located in University Circle, Uptown is home to one of the highest concentrated district of museums and cultural organizations, including The Cleveland Orchestra, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland Institute of Music, Cleveland Botanical Gardens, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Western Reserve Historical Society and Case Western Reserve University.
The $27.2 million, 34,000-square-foot facility was designed by London architect Farshid Moussavi, and is her first museum commission and her first building in the United States. The four-story museum is 44 percent larger than the museum’s previous rented space. One of a few contemporary museums that is non-collecting, the museum does not need to accommodate collection galleries and flexibility is important to showcasing any variety of works.
Sitting on the corner of a triangular site, the museum has entrances on all of its faceted sides that transition from a hexagonal base to a square roof. The tops of the exterior walls reach 65 feet tall, while the high point of the roof is 67 1/2 feet. All sides of the façade are sloping at various angles and come together to create a powerful abstract form.
Five of the six exterior elevations were engineered, fabricated and installed by A. ZAHNER Co., Kansas City, Mo. ZAHNER’s engineers studied the panels with Moussavi’s team and created a unique façade comprised of 1,354 mirror blue-black stainless steel panels. The digitally engineered blue-black mirror-finish stainless steel panels feature ZAHNER’s trimless edges where panels fold around corners. ZAHNER’s scope included finished interior skin, insulation, structure, sheathing and waterproofing in a single unit. Reflecting its urban setting, the façade changes in appearance as the surrounding light and weather change.
The remaining elevation at the main entrance is an entirely transparent stick-built curtainwall with custom toggle system from United Architectural Metals, North Canton, Ohio. Viracon, Owatonna, Minn., supplied its 1 7/16-inch VRE1-46 Insulating Laminated glass for the curtainwall.
“The highly unique geometric building design provided challenges during design, fabrication and erection of the building envelope system,” notes Dan Gess, project manager at Donley’s Inc., Cleveland. “Each of the eight exterior elevations is either sloped inwards or outwards, so special rigging was devised to lift the structural wall panels into place.”
Additionally, “High expectations and tight tolerance requirements were established by the owner and design team for the
[ZAHNER façade with special attention focused on] joints, corners and seams,” Gess continues. “Thermal movement had to be accounted for with the black metal material, which was compounded where a single [ZAHNER façade element] wrapped a building corner.” Gess explains that ZAHNER created a full-scale building corner mock-up, allowing the owner, architect and Donley’s to review the fabrication processes, review the proposed joint and corner details and confirm all aspects of the cladding design before fabrication of all the large panels began.
Three of the six facets of the LEED-NC Silver-certified facility flank a public gathering space, linking MOCA to other Uptown attractions and amenities.
Upon entering the atrium, the Donna and Stewart Kohl Monumental Staircase creates an impressive sculptural form. As the staircase begins its ascent, it has been stacked on top of a second staircase, allowing visitors to choose between two dramatically different routes: the main staircase, which is open to the atrium and views of the other floors, or the egress stairs, which are enclosed, yet illuminated, evoking a tube of light.
The main gallery is located on the museum’s fourth floor and features moveable walls enabling the 6,000-square-foot space to be divided into a variety of configurations. Also on the top floor is a gallery for new media work and a lounge with views of the city.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland
Award: 2013 Build Ohio Award for New Construction $7 to $30 Million from the Associated General Contractors of Ohio
Architects:
Farshid Moussavi Architects, London, and Westlake Reed Leskosky, Cleveland
Construction manager: Donley’s Inc., Cleveland
Curtainwall installer: United Glass and Panel Systems, North Canton, Ohio
Façade fabricator/contractor/stainless steel: A. ZAHNER Co., Kansas City, Mo.
Structural engineer: Arup, Boston
Curtainwall:
United Architectural Metals, North Canton
Glass: Viracon, Owatonna, Minn.