From the moment someone approaches the entrance to the Seventeenth & Madison building in Kansas City, Mo., until the time they leave, they encounter metal elements that act as a wayfinding system. Furthermore, the metal applications form a strong relationship between the existing masonry building and its new, modern, renovated state. Hermanos Design used metal elements to make the building design a cohesive whole.
Metal elements unify mixed-use building and guide occupants
Photo: Aaron Dougherty Photography
The judging panel for the 2022 Metal Architecture Design Awards lauded the Seventeenth & Madison project for these reasons and more and recognized it with the Design Award in the interiors category.
Metal Wayfinding
New entries and circulation were essential parts of the project, which was a complete interior and exterior renovation of the mixed-use building. For occupants of the building, they experience a series of wayfinding aluminum and steel elements as they move throughout the interior.
Josh Hartman, AIA, architect at Hermanos Design in Kansas City, Mo., says, “Each entrance into the building is marked by powder-coated aluminum panels which also include bent integral address numbers for each space.”
Hermanos Design embraced the requirements to update the building to current standards as an opportunity to emphasize new elements.
Hartman says, “The existing building consisted of several different levels where the entries meet the street, thus creating the necessity of ramps and level changes to meet current ADA standards. The interior design celebrated these necessary constraints by creating a series of ramps and stairs circulating around an original masonry demising wall. Interior steel guardrails were selected to accentuate the ramps and stair interior circulation.”
Standard Sheet Metal Inc. in Kansas City, Mo., fabricated aluminum and steel panels for the project. At stairs and ramps inside the building, Hermanos Design installed perforated 12-gauge hot-rolled steel panels with a blackened oil finish.
Hartman says economy had a role in the guardrail panels’ design. “By bending the steel perforated guard panels, each panel can act as a post and guardrail. This made installation a far easier task and took less time.”
Photo: Aaron Dougherty Photography
Cohesive Whole
In addition to creating a wayfinding system, Hermanos Design in Kansas City, Mo., used metal applications to unify a group of buildings.
Josh Hartman, AIA, architect at Hermanos Design in Kansas City, Mo., says, “The existing structure consisted of four buildings, connected, dating back to the late 1800s and the mid-1900s, posing the design challenge. The overall design solution consisted of using modern openings and perforated metal sun-shade panels to tie the building together, resulting in one, cohesive project. The perforated metal sun-shade panels give the large assembly of buildings a design language. They allow for transparency and also work for sun-shading on the south and west facades. The economy of the metal panels meant that we could efficiently achieve this.”
At entrances and a new storefront system, Hermanos Design installed perforated 7-gauge aluminum panels powder-coated in Maple Bronze.
Photo: Aaron Dougherty Photography
Old and New
In addition to perforated sun-shades, another way Hermanos Design used metal to create a cohesive design was by using the new metal elements and existing masonry and other features to strengthen each other.
“The interior raw steel perforated guard panels were used at each stair and ramp guardrail,” Hartman says. “These panels were selected for the structural performance of guardrail requirements and to complement the existing brick, repurposed wood floors and new white walls.”
To further strengthen the relationship between the new metal elements and existing architecture, much of the metal was left uncoated and raw.
Hartman says, “The interior metal panels are raw, hot-rolled steel. The material’s authentic properties were used to contrast the white finished walls and complement the repurposed wood floor and existing brick walls.”
As to renovating the existing building to connect with new elements, Hartman says they discovered opportunities to bring them closer together as they developed the design.
“Many historical metal elements were revealed during construction as they had been covered up decades before,” Hartman says. “Our intent was to thoughtfully integrate contemporary elements with the old. The definition of old for the project evolved and changed as construction was underway. We were originally solely concerned with the existing masonry structure and celebrating it with our new insertions and circulation. We soon discovered beautiful metal structure and details on the exterior that had been covered up. By accentuating those features with our new elements, the building more accurately became a reflection of its past and its future.”
Many of the design choices that make Seventeenth & Madison a highly successful project can be reproduced in many other buildings. “These types of panels could certainly be used in many other types of buildings on stairs and in shading exterior windows,” Hartman says. “Their economy and ease of installation mean that they complement many different existing conditions.”
Photo: Aaron Dougherty Photography