Photo: Brian Cirillo Photography
Cladding materials including metal wall panels met more than a few project goals for a fitness addition at Herricks High School. The panels establish the building’s identity with clean-cut lines, create a new front entrance, and differentiate the addition from, and incorporate it with, the existing masonry building. Moreover, the metal panels reinforce the fitness and wellness uses of the addition.
Kevin Walsh, AIA, ALEP, LEED AP, partner at BBS Architects, Landscape Architects and Engineers PC, says, “The design incorporates metal as a primary design tool for the reimagining of the building’s identity and personality. The project also modernized the front of the building to rebrand the school.”
Ashlar Contracting Inc. installed ATAS International Inc.’s 16-inch-wide Rigid Wall II concealed fastener, corrugated metal wall panels in Dove Grey on the 3,700-squarefoot addition and an adjacent auditorium.
Metal panels were an essential material to intersect with the existing building, both differentiating new from existing architecture and, concurrently, complementing the masonry. “Metal allowed the breaking away from masonry cavity wall construction that assisted with both budget and schedule,” Walsh says.
Project goals focused on improving the student experience and replacing an insufficient weight room, Walsh explains. “At the same time, the location of the proposed new fitness center addition is prominent at the main entry court of the building, so there was also the goal of making an architectural design statement. Metal was used to reinforce the idea of an innovative approach to the building’s identity and, therefore, the impression that it makes on the students, faculty and community that interact with it. The existing building was designed as a sprawling, low-in-height, brick, pancake-like building over 50 years ago and has little to no architectural expression to speak of.”
