Project Profiles: Offices and Warehouses

Hennepin County Human Services and Public Health Department, Minneapolis

Retrofit Team

Architect: Mobilize Design & Architecture, Minneapolis
Metal Wall Panel Installer: MG McGrath Inc., Maplewood, Minn.
Owner and Real-estate Developer: The Ackerberg Group, Minneapolis

Materials

A corner building that many probably never noticed is now an original structure that demands attention, thanks to a metal wall panel system with flat and tapered panels. The tapered panels were installed on a curved corner element that was added by the design team to showcase the building.

Mobilize Design & Architecture worked with the building owner and real-estate developer to create the design. David J. Witt, partner with Mobilize Design & architecture, says: “We wanted to make the building more inviting for the clients of the department. There were only a few windows in the existing building, so we wanted to add significantly more windows and get more light into the building. We wanted to transform the image of the building, so someone coming by would think that a new building had been built on the site of the old building.”

Attention was brought with the tapered Series Panels because they can be angled in any direction with varying depths and degrees of slope. This feature creates dynamic surfaces on nearly any facade without the need to modify the substrate or weather barrier.

Installed on the project was approximately 4,660 square feet of 0.080-inch aluminum tapered Series panels and a flat Wall Panel System in Charcoal gray; Slate gray; Silver; and Purple rain, a color-changing paint that transforms from gray to purple depending on the viewing angle. The color-changing paint was used on 694 square feet of the flat panels. MG McGrath installed the panels in a record-breaking cold winter without delay.

The panels do not require sealants, gaskets or butyl tape, which eliminates the risk of streaks. the panels are not laminated nor a composite and will never delaminate. They are fully tested to ASTM standards for air, water and structural performance; AAMA 508-07 for pressure-equalized rainscreens; and hurricane-tested and -approved for installation in Dade and Broward counties in Florida.

The panels have an interlocking design and are manufactured using an automated system. they can be installed over simple substrates, like plywood and a weather barrier, as well as over more complex systems, involving outboard insulation. this was a selling point for the design team.

“We liked the flexibility we had in designing with [these panels],” Witt says. “We also liked the tapered panels, which allowed us to do something unique with an important corner of the building. We had many color choices and were able to use a color-shift paint on some of the panels.”

Flat and Tapered Series Wall Panel Manufacturer: Dri-Design

The Retrofit

A printing plant once occupied the cinder-block building that has been transformed into the department’s office hub. the single-story, 25,000-square-foot building is 100-feet deep. the hub brings food assistance, drivers’ license renewals and social services to a neighbor- hood that was in need of these services.

PHOTOS:Mark Kempf, St. Louis