Brown University Providence, Rhode Island
by Jonathan McGaha | October 9, 2011 12:00 am
Located in Providence, R.I., Brown University’s Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts is intended to advance new directions in teaching and research, and cross boundaries between the arts, sciences and the humanities. Designed by New York City-based Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, the 38,800-square-foot center features a 200-seat recital hall, a 35-mm screening facility, a recording studio, multimedia lab and a number of multipurpose production studios.
The building structure contains a concrete and steel moment frame from Seekonk, Mass.-based J.L. Marshall & Sons Inc. In addition to the frame, the building envelope features 60,000 square feet of Raleigh, N.C.-based Umicore Building Products USA Inc.’s 0.70-mm VMZINC QUARTZ-ZINC with a Preweathered Gray patina. The building envelope also contains 26,000 square feet of Eastman, Ga.-based Alcoa Architectural Products’ 4-mm Reynobond Zinc Composite Material panels with an FR core and prepatina VMZINC finish in addition to 4,000 square feet of 4-mm Reynobond Aluminum Composite Material panels with an FR core and custom Grey Velvet Kynar finish. Boston-based Karas & Karas Glass Co. Inc. fabricated the building envelope.
Karas & Karas’ Chief Estimator Thomas Mayo notes, “I think that the greatest challenge for us was the varied geometry of the application and that fact that each panel was one of a kind. Our project engineers and fabricators worked hand in hand to determine the sizing, folding and assembly requirements of the individual panels and how they had to fit into a specific sequence of panels to create a specific pleat within a specific section of a specific elevation on the façade to achieve ‘the look’ the architects envisioned for the project. The coordination between shop and field was intense.”
Each of the pleated panels required a different shape creating a building envelope with individual pieces of unique geometry. Inside, the interior surfaces of the buildings’ floor plates run from raw to refined. Three floor plates fill the site envelope and create six half levels. Each floor interfaces two others conjoined by a shear glass wall. The overall effect of the glass wall allows students and visitors to become spectators of creative activities occurring throughout the whole building allowing a creative connection and dynamic to flow throughout the entire structure.
Umicore Building Products
www.vmzinc-us.com
Alcoa Architectural Products
www.alcoaarchitecturalproducts.com
Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/projects/brown-university-providence-rhode-island/