Photo: John Faulk, courtesy of 3A Composites USA Inc.
EGV Architects Inc. leveraged metal composite material (MCM) in a variety of bright colors in its transformation of a former plastics manufacturing plant into South Texas College’s (STC) Technology Campus in McAllen, Texas. The colorful panels contrast with the existing building’s cream-colored brick and brown split-face block wainscot on its façade.
The building features purple and green decorative design elements, and multicolored entrance with a silver canopy and columns clad in MCM. Bowman Distributing Co. fabricated and installed 742 of 3A Composites USA Inc.’s 4-mm-thick ALUCOBOND MCM panels in Silver Metallic (6,300 square feet), 471 ALUCOBOND MCM panels in custom STC Green (6,200 square feet) and 145 ALUCOBOND MCM panels in custom STC Violet (2,700 square feet). Standard sized panels are 2 1/2 feet wide by 4 feet long; others ranged in size from 9 inches wide by 2 1/2 feet long to 3 feet wide by 5 feet long.
Eduardo Vela, AIA, principal at EGV Architects, says, “We chose to use ALUCOBOND as a decorative theme for the college. It’s low maintenance and requires no painting. Once ALUCOBOND is installed, it’s there, unlike stucco that tends to fade. The custom green and violet ALUCOBOND will be there for many years with no maintenance. The ALUCOBOND was a good fit; it makes the campus architecturally appealing.”
Renovating the industrial facility into a college with classrooms, offices and labs presented some design challenges. EGV Architects worked around a load-bearing wall in the middle of the building and columns, bracing and roof heights, which were not designed for classrooms. Much of the interior was demolished and an entrance created. An additional 4,621 square feet of space was added on the north side for an outdoor welding lecture space and lab, bringing its capacity to 72,000 square feet.
New air conditioning, ventilation and lighting systems were installed, but EGV Architects maintained as much of the existing building as possible. Vela says, “The existing building looked like a typical warehouse. We had to start with a well-worn manufacturing site and turn it into a state-of-the-art teaching facility. We also wanted to use as much of the existing mechanical, electrical and plumbing as possible.”
Juan Marchan, member manager at Bowman Distributing, says, “It was also a very challenging project because of the large span of bridge walls and the overall size of the project.”
