HSEB's Crinkled Copper

John Hill

30. septembre 2013

A view of the building from the northeast. Photo: Bill Timmerman

For the design of the Health Sciences Education Building at the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in Phoenix, CO Architects found inspiration in Arizona's iconic canyon formations, splitting the building into two six-story wings and wrapping the exterior in a rainscreen of copper panels. Chandler, Arizona's Kovach Building Enclosures worked with the architects to achieve the desired pleating and patina.

The building's south façade. Photo: Bill Timmerman

To help keep costs down on the 250,000 pounds (113,400 kilos) of copper wrapping the building (supplied by Revere Copper), Kovach and CO Architects arranged the panels in 26 configurations, resulting in a random and varied appearance. On the south facade, the copper also projects from the façade in the form of brows shading the ribbon windows and interior spaces from the hot desert sun.

The building's east façade. Photo: Bill Timmerman

A closer look at the east elevation, which overlooks a busy six-lane thoroughfare, reveals some of the logic in the 26 panels. They are stacked in a running bond, so the vertical open joints do not add pinstripes to the building; and the tightly pleated panels are occasionally mirrored, to imply a flow around the building and give the impression of being pinched at certain points. Given copper's natural tendency to patina to a green over time, it will be interesting to see how the crinkles impact that transformation. It's feasible that the profile will keep certain sections dry, resulting in green-brown striping that will only reinforce the architects' canyon metaphor.