34 METAL ARCHITECTURE Apr il 2019 www.metalarchitecture.com www.metalarchitecture.com April 2019 METAL ARCHITECTURE 35

MARKET FEATURE

Twisting exteriors provide protection, views

Metal panels, exposed structure lighten designBjarke Ingels Group designed the Grove at Grand Bay

condominium buildings in Miami with two towers with twisting

façades. The design serves two main purposes. First, it provides

protection from extreme weather events including hurricanes.

Second, the design allows for views of Biscayne Bay from all 98

units, 49 in each of the 20-story towers.

The towers have diagonally slanted concrete columns

reinforced with composite cores of concrete and steel internal

plates for the shear walls. Additional stability is provided by

camber floor plates, each of which arches slightly in relation to

the floor below. Additionally, the roofs have hat-trusses, where

girders are cantilevered from the tower cores and connected

to columns. Pressure-injected auger-cast pilings are driven, on

average, 80 feet into the soft South Florida soil.

To maximize views, exterior aesthetics and balcony space

without compromising weather and corrosion protection, Tec-

noglass Inc. finished, fabricated and installed hurricane-resistant

window walls, glass doors and metal framing systems finished

with fluoropolymer coatings. Tecnoglass finished the metal

framing with 22 tons of PPG Industries Inc.’s Duranar coatings in

Acadia Silver and Bone White.

Carlos Amin, vice president of sales at Tecnoglass, says,

“This was a demanding application that required the use of the

very best materials. Our engineers designed 12-foot-tall, floor-

to-ceiling windows and sliding glass doors with three panes of

coated, ultra-clear glass. The balcony railings were laminated

with two lites of the same glass. In addition to protecting the

metal framing with Duranar coatings, we hermetically sealed

everything at the factory and installed custom-made rollers on

the doors to make sure they operated properly. Everything is

hurricane-resistant and insulated.”

Owner: Terra Group, Coconut Grove, Fla.

Architect: Bjarke Ingels Group, New York City, big.dk

Engineer: Kline Engineering and Consulting LLC, Manassas, Va., www.klineengineered.com

Finisher/fabricator/installer: Tecnoglass Inc., Barrio Las Flores, Barranquilla, Colombia, www.tecnoglass.com, Circle #34

Coatings: PPG Industries Inc., Pittsburgh, www.ppgmetalcoatings.com, Circle #35

For a private residence in inner city Houston on

a major thoroughfare and corner lot, project goals

included opening it to the yard for outdoor living,

a challenge given the site is bounded to one side

by the major thoroughfare. Additionally, the owner

wanted literal and metaphorical brightness and

vibrancy to positively reinforce daily family life.

M + a architecture studio specified metal wall

panels and exposed structure in its design to cre-

ate a sense of visual lightness. A low-scale, heavy

mass anchors a composition at the north side. The

house becomes materially lighter with a two-story

curtainwall paralleling the circulation spine and main

yard. A second-story mass contains the master

bedroom. It is elevated on a pair of columns, which

creates a covered patio at the southeast corner and

integrates public spaces with the landscape. For the

wall cladding, 4,000 square feet of McElroy Metals’

7.2 Panels with a Galvalume finish were installed.

Design-builder: m + a architecture studio, Houston, maarchitecturestudio.com

Metal wall panels: McElroy Metal Inc., Bossier City, La., www.mcelroymetal.com, Circle #36

PHOTOS: DROR BALDINGER, FAIA, AN

D MARK SCHATZ, AIA

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