Collaboration Yields Amazing Building

When a team of professionals convenes to create a world-class building, success or failure usually hinges on one word: cooperation. 

Fortunately, the team responsible for the Art Gallery of Alberta’s (AGA’s) largest masterpiece—the 84,000-sq-ft building itself—found plenty of common ground early. 

To achieve the soaring waves and arches of the building’s curvilinear structures, the contractors laboring to wrap stainless steel and white-painted aluminum around architect Randall Stout’s vision worked off a common 3D computer model, which was generated from the initial physical models.

The contractor team—general contractor Ledcore Construction, metal installer Flynn Canada, and fabricator A. Zahner Co.—created and manipulated computer images in Rhinoceros software and used the Rhino model to communicate using drawings generated in other commonly used programs such as Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA, and Tekla. 

The interfacing of those software platforms mirrored the collaboration happening regularly at the human level of the project, especially during installation of the “Borealis” portion of the building that features stainless steel panels on the exterior and white aluminum on the underside. (The more traditional, rectilinear portions of the building were clad in patinaed zinc.) All the forms were manufactured in Kansas City by Zahner Engineered Profile Panels and shipped to Edmonton by truck.

“The biggest hurdle to get over was coordination,” says Tom Zahner, senior project manager at A. Zahner Co., Kansas City, MO. To ensure that the installation of the puzzle of different shapes on the Borealis matched the model, the Zahner team held regular virtual meetings (using WebEx) with Ledcor and Flynn representatives who were on site.

“Creating the shape I don’t think was the biggest challenge. We’ve done pretty complicated stuff,” says Zahner, who also worked with Stout on the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, TN, and other projects. “It was creating a shape and then working with the fact that it’s going to hit a curtain wall at this angle, and it’s going to bypass a major steel member over here, and all the tricky little interfaces. You definitely had to keep your finger on the pulse of it.

“Every one of those interfaces doesn’t make for a unique construction, but it makes for a unique condition where you might have to do something slightly different.”

Those inherent difficulties were not lost on Stout, who notes that he enjoyed the challenge of designing a building to endure the climate in Alberta.

“The extent of curved surfaces really pushed the boundaries of sheet goods,” Stout says.

The three exterior metals used in the project all serve definite aesthetic and utilitarian purposes.

“The AGA design has two distinct architectural languages: the orthogonal rectilinear volumes of the flexible exhibit galleries, and the curvilinear forms of unique public spaces,” Stout says. “It was important that the selected materials support this design duality. As a whole, these materials are complementary to one another but allow these elements to take on distinctive characteristics. 

“As an example, the zinc serves as a neutral backdrop for the reflective color and light of the stainless steel surfaces,” he notes. “The tones of silver and white exterior metal are a source of ambient light—causing the building to quite literally glow at certain times. And of course both zinc and stainless are timeless and durable materials.” 

Industry representatives agree one of the draws of zinc cladding is that, if installed properly, it can last for decades. A natural material, zinc is also eco-friendly, which helps its profile. Integrating those different materials and shapes would have been much more taxing had the team not had the players it did.

“The true highlight of the project was the coordination and just the fact that it was a heck of a lot less of an issue on a job like this because the right players were involved,” Zahner says. “I can’t emphasize that enough. This type of project with the wrong steel person would have taken years and might not even be completed right now.”

LOCATION 

2 Sir Winston Churchill Square

Northwest, Edmonton, AB, Canada 

SIZE

84,000 square feet

OWNER

Art Gallery of Alberta 

DATE OF COMPLETION

November 2009 

DESIGN ARCHITECT

Randall Stout Architects

GENERAL CONTRACTOR

Ledcore Construction

PROJECT COST

$66 million

METAL SIDING

Stainless steel (20-gauge, beadblasted)– 50,400 sq ft.; aluminum (0.050” thickness, white Kynar finish)–22,500 sq ft.; zinc with quartzite backing (0.8” thickness, custom patina finish)–60,000 sq ft.