Using Color and Texture to Enhance a Façade

Elevate your building design by adding architectural metal panel systems to its façade. These versatile products—available in a plethora of finish options and patterns—can enhance the look of your structure without breaking the budget. Their durability and low maintenance qualities make them suitable for any climate. They are also easy to install and environmentally friendly.

High-Rise Apartments Stand Out in City Hub

Niles Bolton Associates in Alexandria, Va., originally specified aluminum composite material for the exterior of the 14-story luxury SkyVue Apartments in Pittsburgh. When aluminum composite material (ACM) panels were ruled out through value-engineering analyses, PAC-CLAD products were brought in as an affordable substitute with a high-end aesthetic. The project team opted for a mix of flush and corrugated panels with trim formed from flat sheet. A color palette of white, gray, and black offers a sophisticated look that fits nicely in the Oakland district of Pittsburgh, a major cultural area touted as the city’s academic and healthcare center.

The mix of colors, vertical and horizontal installation techniques, and flush and corrugated panels add character to the large building. “We specified the Petersen profiles for the modular construction that was planned,” says Nick Hill, project manager for Niles Bolton Associates. “Panelizing is definitely the way to go to avoid issues with the weather. The Matte Black corrugated provided a nice accent to the other colors.”

The prefabricated structural system was constructed by Wyatt in Pittsburgh. “We built the whole wall system in the shop and attached the Flush panels there, and then transported the sections to the site,” says Jim Barca, operations manager at Wyatt. “The flush panels were easy to install.”

Identity Defined with Metal Façade

Wichita State University’s Innovation Campus—a magnet for technology, manufacturing, and research and development leaders—provides students with internship and job opportunities at major corporations. One of the latest additions to the Campus is Partnership Building 3, which uses three metal panel profiles to define the façade.

Local firm GLMV Architecture, which designed Partnership Building 3, helped lead the Campus’s master-planning and design efforts for several buildings in the development. Matt Cortez, AIA, president of GLMV and a lead designer on the project, said the choice to use metal panels was an easy one. And now it’s a common façade element throughout the new campus. By choosing three different panel profiles for the building, Cortez believes it helps ensure the façade design stands on its own. “We wanted to make sure all the buildings talk to each other, but we wanted them to also have their own identities,” he says.

GLMV opted for Petersen’s PAC-CLAD line for all the panels in the project per the suggestions from the installing contractor, Mahaney Group Inc., also based in Wichita. The majority of the exterior is clad in ribbed Precision Series Highline S1 Silver panels. Flat sheet in Matte Black surrounds the window areas, while Snap-On panels in Bone White call out the entryways and window areas on side elevations.

An Elementary School Where Form Follows Function

For John S. McCain III Elementary School, located in the Phoenix suburb of Buckeye, Ariz., designers chose a “Taking Flight” theme, inspired by the school’s namesake senator and former fighter pilot. The interior and exterior were designed with a futuristic eye, providing students with an environment to help them reach forward to their own futures. Kasey Josephs—project manager at Orcutt Winslow, the project’s architect—says “[the] traditional walls have been replaced with glass partitions that can open up to surrounding areas. It’s all about transparency and inclusion and providing different spaces for different learners.”

When it came to the exterior, Phoenix-based Global Roofing Group specified PAC-CLAD products due to availability concerns and the wide selection of systems Petersen offers; four profiles were specified in a mix of solid and perforated styles. The exposed fastener 7.2 Panel in Award Blue defines the second floor. Solid exposed fastener M-36 panels in Stone White create a visual pop for the two-story projecting entrance and perforated panels in the same finish allow sunlight to pass through the polycarbonate wall lining the sky bridge. Flush panels in Black define transitions.

Learn more about PAC-CLAD’s varied range of metal panel systems and its collection of standard PVDF finishes including brilliant metallics, sophisticated wood grains, and rich ores at PAC-CLAD.com.