Ithaca Builds

Mapping, photos and information for Ithaca construction and development projects

The Gates Hall Facade

October 15, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

Quite possibly the most unique-looking building in Ithaca, the recently dedicated Gates Hall wears a facade mainly composed of glass curtain wall with an assortment of flat and angled metal shading panels produced by a company out of Kansas City, Missouri: Zahner. The group just released a nice web page detailing the design and installation process with the Architecture Team from Morphosis, the General Contractor Welliver, Structural Engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti, and glass installer W&W Glass.

As facade systems have become more complex, the process has evolved to work-out as many pre-fabrication steps before arrival on-site, then as panels are installed, photos from the site are compared with the full 3D model for verification. The same technique was actually employed for the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, designed by SHoP Construction. In addition to the aesthetic purpose, the panels actually block a precisely calculated portion of sunlight to limit solar gain (too much extra heat from the sun, driving up cooling needs).

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