Metal master reveals secret to perfect skin

Real Estate Weekly,  Oct 17, 2007  by Danielle Wolffe

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People familiar with architecture may not have any trouble recognizing the trademark crinkly, swooping metal skins on a building as one of Frank Gehry's creations. A less recognizable man whose hands sculpt most of those building skins, William Zahner, president of A. Zahner Metals in Kansas City, was brought to the forefront last week at the Architectural Record Innovaton Conference held at McGraw-Hill Corporate Headquarters.

A. Zahner Metals works in collaboration with architects and developers to design and engineer intricate metal facades and sculpt them in their factory in Kansas City.

Inspiration for the shapes and colors of these projects in the past have been drawn from the hillsides of Roanoke Virginia, from forest light filtered through trees and from ordinary objects such as a woman's scarf. The artisans work with a variety of methods to balance texture of the objects, to create shades which can range to the shade of a copper penny to the blue of the Pacific Ocean using washes, or adding patinas, or by determining what color will emerge as the metal reacts to light or age. They seek to determine the best method to hold these skins up, and how they will fit into the landscape or skyscape of the surrounding neighborhoods where they will eventually wind up.

Computer generated designs and models which are later built to scale, are used to configure the pieces. Panels which could be as tall as 40 feet are generally prefabricated in Kansas City and then shipped to work sites where they are assembled through a variety of methods.

Often, these skins are created prior to the construction of the building, and even the architect himself will have no idea what the final product will look like.

"The nature of metal isn't always regular, it doesn't always bend the way you want it to, each piece bends slightly differently. You start working with something, and you get a feel for how it is going to turn out, it is almost subjective, and so in that way each project is almost like a work of art," Zahner said.

The specifications of the project provide some form for Zahner to work with. The project that he did for Julliard School of the Performing Arts, for example--a sleek 50 foot tall staircase made of stiff steel that was three-quarters-of-an-inch thick--was a very different animal from the texturized levels of bumps and perforated holes meant to simulate the light coming through the forest he created at the DeYoung Museum in Chicago. The project he did for Neiman Marcus at a mall in Massachusetts which was meant to resemble a woman's scarf on a glass box required wavy layers of wrapped aluminum that was thick but lightweight and required the type of engineering common to airplane fuselages. Ultimately it is the metal itself that will determine the shape of the building.

"That transformation is what is so wonderful about metal. You are never quite sure what you are going to get." Zahner said.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Hagedorn Publication
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