Metal Construction News, November 2018

SPECIAL FEATURE MCN BUILDING AND ROOFING AWARDS Metal Walls New Ballet Memphis Memphis Tenn Metal Music Box By Christopher Brinckerhoff Associate Editor The Ballet Memphis ballet companys buildings overall design concept transparency textures and colors earned it the 2018 Metal Construction News Building and Roofi ng Award in the New Walls category The judging panel noted the design took the whole conception of the architecture into consideration from the distance as a sculptural building to the progression of scales from the street to the sidewalk and building where perforated screens and expansive glazing reveal views of the interior The judges lauded the designs transparency interplay of standard building materials complementary forms and colors Transparent Engagement Relative to transparency achieving a high level of community engagement with transparent elements was one of the projects driving principles Archimania Memphis Tenn designed the rehearsal performance and school building in Memphis to resemble a music box with animated ballerina fi gures Layers of large glazed openings standing seam panels with a zinc fi nish perforated screens and deep inserts provide views of interior activity for passers by Further there is a 7 foot wide walkway between the building and a perforated copper screenwall courtyard café and display window of the costume shop on the east side Todd Walker FAIA principal at archimania says The perforated copper screen sits at the historic street edge enhancing the urban experience within the entertainment district while complying with city codes and setbacks Scales Colors Textures In terms of breaking up an overall design concept to break up the buildings scales and employing complementary colors and textures archimania specifi ed corrugated copper and standing seam zinc panels for multiple reasons The forms of the metal clad volumes with the zinc in the center and copper at the perimeter are complementary and break up the buildings scales The zinc volumes have curved concave crowns and the perforated copper screenwall is characterized by right angled shapes For colors and textures the cool colored zinc and warm colored copper are complementary colors and they break up the scale of the building Furthermore both materials will develop patinas and change in appearance as they age In addition to complementing the zinc the copper connects the building to its locale by relating to an adjacent residential area which has some houses with copper components We settled on the idea of a street side screen early in the process and the use of copper related well to the many older homes in the district that have copper elements Walker says In this case copper is not only a natural material but a historic material used in a modern way Walker says the process of the copper developing patinas as time passes adds a progressive Photos courtesy of archimania Complementary forms colors and textures create dance companys engaging building 22 METAL CONSTRUCTION NEWS November 2018