Gersthofen, Germany. For the David Geffen Galleries, seele has delivered a 52,000 sq ft glass and brass facade – custom-built to meet seismic requirements and Peter Zumthor’s specifications for natural light.
With the opening of the David Geffen Galleries, the new building for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), more than 142,000 works of art found a new home, and Los Angeles gained an architectural landmark, designed by the Swiss architect and Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor. The design is based on two main principles: all artworks are to be presented on an equal footing on a single level and primarily staged in daylight. The project brought together seele’s expertise in the processing and fabrication of brass profiles, 3D-curved facade components and local construction execution in the USA.
Glass meets brass
For the museum, seele realized a 52,000 sq ft mullion-and-transom façade, comprising of a steel substructure and insulating glass units, some of which are more than 26 ft high. Due to the building’s organic floor plan, both straight and curved glass elements were used. To protect the artworks from UV radiation and reduce total solar energy transmittance, the glass elements were fitted with a low-E coating, a wafer-thin metallic coating that reflects solar radiation.
Another highlight is the cladding of the load-bearing façade components with extruded brass profiles, which are up to approx. 0.6 in thick and, matching the dimensions of the glass units, up to approx. 28 ft long. The high-quality finished profiles processed by seele add an elegant accent to the restrained design of the continuous glazed band.
Special requirements in a seismic zone
With several thousand earthquakes a year - although not all of them are felt - Los Angeles is located in a highly seismic region. At the same time, the museum site is situated on soft ground. This also imposed specific structural demands on the facade construction. To meet these demands, the top connections of the facade elements on the upper floor have been designed with integrated dampers, engineered to absorb and reduce any vibrations which may occur. Furthermore, accordion-shaped seals are used at the top of the glazing on both the ground floor and the upper floor, allowing the facade and the concrete slab to move independently of one another.
In addition to airtightness, wind and water tests, horizontal and vertical deformations of the structure were also extensively simulated and tested ahead of the construction phase using a test mock-up at seele in Gersthofen.
Maximum transparency for a unique art experience
With the facade solution for the David Geffen Galleries, seele translated Peter Zumthor’s architectural vision into a building envelope that meets the demands of seismic performance, daylight control, and material precision in equal measure. The large-format glass surfaces create maximum transparency, open the museum up to the urban space and allow natural light to become an integral part of the art display. Combined with the precisely machined brass profiles, the result is a facade that brings together functional requirements, local conditions, and design elegance – and lends LACMA’s new building the openness that brings Zumthor’s concept of daylight as a curatorial tool to life.
Credits
Client
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Contractor
Clark Construction Group
Design Architect
Atelier Peter Zumthor
Executive Architect
SOM
