Hospital Transforms Wall with Metal Fabric Featuring Interwoven LEDs

While the garage met the functional requirements of providing ample parking, Cook Children’s wanted to provide an enhanced façade at the busy intersection where the garage is located.

Cook Children’s Health Care System in Fort Worth, Texas includes one of the nation’s top children’s hospitals as rated by U.S. News & World Report. During the past ten years, the hospital has undergone a number of expansions in their patient care areas as well as administrative and general facility spaces.

In 2013, a seven-level parking garage was built specifically for employees. While the garage met the functional requirements of providing ample parking, Cook Children’s wanted to provide an enhanced façade at the busy intersection where the garage is located.

George Montague, vice president of real estate for Cook Children’s Health Care System, helped to define the criteria to make the otherwise barren wall a must-see with an iconic installation.

“There were three objectives when we began to design the corner façade of the garage,” says George Montague. “It must generate energy and interest, content must be able to be changed, and the images must be viewable in the daylight as well as at night.”

Montague researched many different standout façade installations and learned about GKD’s transparent media façade called Mediamesh. This product is a stainless steel metal fabric with interwoven LEDs. He liked the beauty and the interactivity of the Mediamesh facades he saw at Fresno State University in California and at WinStar World Casino in Oklahoma.

“There were three objectives when we began to design the corner façade of the garage,” says Montague. “It must generate energy and interest, content must be able to be changed, and the images must be viewable in the daylight as well as at night.”

Unlike other interactive facades, this one would be used solely for artistic content. Fort Worth currently prohibits the use of digital signage.

“GKD Mediamesh is being specified more and more for facades that are used as art installations,” says Steve Culver.

Montague and his team moved forward and specified Mediamesh. The parking garage façade now plays host to creative content managed by Cook Children’s staff. Each item displayed is programmed so that the content fits the digital display properly and illuminates the proper LEDs to create the finished work. What is being displayed on the Mediamesh is very easily changed by logging into the secure server.

“GKD Mediamesh is being specified more and more for facades that are used as art installations,” says Steve Culver, director of business development for Mediamesh. “In the Cook Children’s installation, the transparency of our product also was very well suited for the windy conditions of Fort Worth. This was another important factor in this particular installation.”

The Mediamesh attachment system was designed by GKD Metal Fabrics and utilized a “woven-in round bar” with integrated eyebolts.

The GKD Mediamesh specification used was V4xH4.25. This product has a vertical pixel pitch of 40 millimeters and a horizontal pixel pitch of 42.5 millimeters. The vertical resolution of the display is 480 pixels and the horizontal resolution is 120 pixels. Images programmed into the system can be downloaded in many different formats, and the open area of the mesh facilitates air flow and also allows natural light to pass through the fabric.

The Mediamesh attachment system was designed by GKD Metal Fabrics and utilized a “woven-in round bar” with integrated eyebolts. This system component was created by weaving a round bar into each panel at the top and the bottom. Eyebolts were attached to the round bar. These eyebolts were passed through structural steel and tensioned with the nut on each eyebolt. All Mediamesh attachment systems are custom created for each installation, insuring safety, strength and performance.