ASTROBOTIC, Pittsburgh
RETROFIT TEAM
ARCHITECT: AE7
MATERIALS
A 47,000-square-foot facility that once served as a touchscreen manufacturing facility, bakery, post office distribution center and vehicle repair center now is home to Astrobotic, a lunar logistics company that builds and operates its lines of landers, rovers, autonomous spacecraft navigation systems, and other space technologies, as well as controls payloads from its Mission Control Center.
With a growing team of 150 employees, Astrobotic needed a new facility for spacecraft integration cleanrooms, test facilities, lab space, payload operations and dedicated mission control. The facility is the largest private building dedicated to lunar logistics.
As a retrofit project, the new Astrobotic facility presented challenges in meeting new code requirements for the existing structure while creating a fresh and contemporary facade.
“We started with the front façade, which serves as the first impression to Astrobotic’s new head- quarters and understood the need to have a simple approach while adding subtle dimensionality to the building,” says James Lennon, project manager with AE7. “CENTRIA Formawall panels helped us achieve that design goal and meet code and performance requirements in the upgrade.”
Crews installed 2,400 square feet of vertical Regal White Formawall Dimension Series panels to deliver continuous insulation, high R-values and a modern exterior cladding aesthetic. Formawall consolidates six wall components into one product and offers pressure-equalized end joints and integration with most glass wall, window and louver systems.
Additionally, the project team worked with CENTRIA to design custom fins for the entry to cre- ate depth, shadow and randomization. Coordination with CENTRIA engineers allowed for the integration of angled plate aluminum in matching Regal White that concealed fasteners and worked with the stan- dard panel system while adding a dynamic element to the front façade.
“Partnering with CENTRIA from the start allowed us to work through technical questions and design the custom fin pieces that the vision called for,” Lennon explains. “The early coordination during design development provided a great relationship, allowing us to obtain a high-performing system with the aesthetic that we and the client desired.”
The Astrobotic team moved into the building after phase one renovations were completed in Spring 2021.
FORMAWALL DIMENSION SERIES PANELS: CENTRIA
PHOTOS: CENTRIA