Residential High-Rise Design

by Jonathan McGaha | April 2, 2017 12:00 am

Multilayered cube-like façade achieves diversity with Alucobond Plus ACM

A big compliment to architects is hearing that one of their building designs has become a recognizable landmark.

That’s the case for architects at the Los Angeles office of Arquitectonica International Corp.[1] who designed the Olume residential building[2] in San Francisco’s Mission District with a unique multi-layered cube-like metal façade featuring a total of five custom earth-toned colors of Alucobond Plus aluminum composite material (ACM) by 3A Composites USA Inc.[3], Davidson, N.C.

Architect Leon Cheng, AIA, of Arquitectonica, frequently travels to San Francisco and often grabs a taxi or car service there. When he’s mentioned the Olume residential building to drivers, he’s heard: “Oh, yeah. That’s the building with the cubes” and other positive reactions.

“It’s heartening to know that the building already is recognizable as a fixture in San Francisco,” says Cheng.

The 12-story, 138,512-square-foot Olume multifamily residential community opened in March 2016 offering 121 luxury rental units. Building owner Monogram Residential Trust Inc.[4], of Plano, Texas, partnered with Martin Building Co., of San Francisco, to develop the boutique-style community.

Arquitectonica was brought in to re-design the façade of the building after the project’s entitlement process had been completed.

“This building is located on a prominent corner
(Mission and 10th streets),” says architect Ilon Keilson, who shared project management duties with Cheng at Arquitectonica. “We were asked to create a more vibrant landmark … We needed to maximize square footage for the client while also creating depth in the elevation to get a sense of relief.”

Cheng adds, “The aesthetic of relief is often tricky to successfully incorporate in sales-driven projects. Doing so has a direct correlation with sellable square footage in the interiors, so we began playing with the exterior skin to maximize the perception of depth and movement without impacting sellable area.”

The L-shaped building’s facade appears as an abstract series of colored metal cubes created from Alucobond Plus ACM and installed at five variable depths-ranging from minus-8 inches to plus-8 inches-with the building’s glazing set back 2 inches to 8 inches from the metal panels.

“From a thematic standpoint, we wanted to introduce dynamism through depth,” says Cheng. “We wanted to reflect diversity in the neighborhood and in residential buildings.”

The varying façade depths “were accentuated with the color palette,” according to Cheng, who says red was incorporated as one of San Francisco’s more prominent colors associated with both the city’s Golden Gate Bridge and its NFL 49ers professional football team.

“We wanted to take the idea of redness but turn it more toward earth tones so there wasn’t an immediate brightness to the building all around,” says Cheng, who described the custom colors of the Alucobond panels installed on-site as “spot on.”

A total of 40,700 square feet of 4-mm Alucobond Plus ACM was installed in five custom colors, including: 19,200 square feet of Cajun Clay, 5,500 square feet of Burnt Russet, 3,400 square feet of Baked Clay, 6,200 square feet of Pumice Stone and 6,400 square feet of Baked Terracotta.

3A Composites USA worked closely with the architects and fabricator Keith Panel Systems Co. Ltd.[5] (KPS) of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to match the custom colors in the 1,400 Alucobond Plus panels fabricated by KPS for the façade.

“The varying depths and multiple colors of this façade made this project extremely complex,” says Paul Dalzell, operations manager, Keith Panels Systems. “We used 3-D modeling to determine the shape and appropriate color of returns. The part count on this project was enormous. This was a very labor intensive job.”

The Alucobond Plus panels were installed by Pacific Erectors Inc.[6], of Rocklin, Calif., with the KPS System A Pressure-Equalized Rainscreen System. Build Group Inc.[7], of San Francisco, served as general contractor.

“KPS gave us an extensive set of shop drawings that basically served as an erector set,” says Jeff Young, project manager, Pacific Erectors. “Our biggest challenge was installing all of the colors. We were able to assist the design team in determining where colors should transition in the articulation.”

The architects say they specified Alucobond Plus because they knew it could achieve their unique multilayered façade design.

“Alucobond is certainly the standard-if not the gold standard-of aluminum composite material,” says Cheng. “Beyond its name recognition, it was recommended in partnership with our contractors. Alucobond was selected for its product characteristics of flatness and light weight.”

Keilson adds, “With the sense of relief we created-installing the metal panels from minus-8 inches to plus-8 inches-we knew Alucobond wouldn’t create a sense of warp.”

“Another product might have limited our design opportunities,” says Cheng. “We didn’t want a product that would produce more noise and be distracting.”

 

Olume residential building, San Francisco
Owner: Monogram Residential Trust Inc.[4], Plano, Texas
Developer: Martin Building Co., San Francisco
Architect: Arquitectonica International Corp., Los Angeles, www.arquitectonica.com[8]
General contractor: Build Group Inc., San Francisco, www.buildgc.com[9]
Fabricator: Keith Panel Systems Co. Ltd. (KPS), North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,
www.keithpanel.com[10]
Installer: Pacific Erectors Inc., Rocklin, Calif., www.pacificerectors.com[11]
Metal wall panels: Alucobond Plus ACM by 3A Composites USA Inc., Davidson, N.C., www.alucobondusa.com[12]
Photo: Daniel Lunghi Photography, Courtesy of 3A Composites USA

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Ben Branham serves as marketing manager for Davidson, N.C.-based 3A Composites USA Inc., which manufactures Alucobond aluminum composite material (ACM). For more information, visit www.alucobondusa.com[13].

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/residential-high-rise-design/

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