Commercial Architecture July 2018 - 39

PROJECT
Opposite page, clockwise from left. The perforations in the rainscreen are individually programmed to reflect a specific volume of light
and act like pixels that, when viewed from afar, produce a continuous
image depicting Manhattan's skyline on the west façade and the famous gorges of Ithaca, NY, near Cornell's main campus, on the east
façade. All photos: Matt Carbone

exteriors

The center was planned to achieve environmental sustainability, leading-edge design, and
net-zero energy use for LEED certification at the
Platinum level.

Set on New York City's Roosevelt Island, The Bloomberg Center is the
first academic building on the new Cornell Tech campus, an educational
partnership of Cornell Univ. and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
Featuring iridescent, color-shifting PPG Duranar Vari-Cool coatings, the
aluminum-panel rainscreen system envelopes the four-story building to
decrease its cooling load, while serving as a visual tether for its floating
40,000-sq.-ft. solar canopy.

famous gorges of Ithaca, NY, near Cornell's main cam-

are talented, but also to emphasize the type of connec-

pus, on the east façade.

tions that Cornell Tech will foster between academia and

Formulated with an advanced 70% polyvinylidene

Scott Moffatt, PPG market manager, architectural coil

combines pearlescent pigments that change color accord-

and extrusion coatings, worked with Zahner to make sure

ing to ambient lighting conditions, with the company's

the coating would meet the long-term performance chal-

Ultra-Cool infrared-reflective coatings technology, which

lenges associated with the building's riverside setting.

cooler.

"Zahner contacted us because they planned to
had been applied, and they were concerned about dis-

coating in part to manage heat gain, the ability to shift

rupting the paint finish," he explained. "They sent us a

color made it the product of choice for this project.

few sample panels and we ran the corrosion tests. The results were positive, so everything was approved."

building that changes under different light conditions

The façade also incorporates cut-aways to accommo-

during different seasons and from different perspectives,"

date wide bands of high-performance glass, enabling it to

said Ung-Joo Scott Lee, a principal with Morphosis and

achieve the recommended 60:40 wall-to-window ratio for

project leader for The Bloomberg Center. "We had never

balancing opacity, outdoor views, and natural-light trans-

used the Vari-Cool product before, but we are always in-

mittance.

terested in exploring new materials and finishes."

Designed to be one of the country's largest net-

After reviewing a number of different colors, the de-

zero-energy academic buildings, The Bloomberg Center

sign team selected Copper Brown Patina for its wide-rang-

features smart-building technologies, geothermal wells

ing brown to greenish-blue hue. "The brown tone pro-

with ground-source heat pumps for heating and cooling,

vides an industrial machine-finish quality that is similar

a 40,000-gal. rainwater harvesting system, and a green

to the Queensboro bridge nearby," Lee explained. "The

roof planted with native species.

bluish-green hue is the color of the East River and the

These strategies, together with the photovoltaic-

Cornell Tech landscape. Together they, very literally,

paneled canopy, are expected to help the building gener-

marry the building to its new Roosevelt Island campus in

ate as much energy as it consumes, a difficult achieve-

New York City."

ment for a technology-intensive academic center that is in
constant use. CA

The digital patterning of the perforations was created

Aluflam has a complete offering of
true extruded aluminum fire-rated
vision doors, windows and glazed
wall systems, fire-rated for up to 120
minutes. Available in all architectural
finishes, our products are almost
indistinguishable from non-fire-rated
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laser-cut the perforations into the panels after the coating

While The Bloomberg Center design team chose the

"We were interested in the concept of a dynamic

Fire-Rated Aluminum Window
And Door Systems

the tech industries."

fluoride (PVDF) resin, PPG Duranar Vari-Cool coating

deflects solar heat away from buildings to keep them

Fire Resistant.
Design Consistent.

by running the rainscreen panels through a repurposed
welding robot. Students from Cornell Tech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) collaborated
with Zahner to develop the algorithm that controlled the
device, which made them major contributors to the
façade design.
Lee said the students' involvement was deliberate and
strategic. "We had been working with Zahner for several
years because they share our design interests and curiosity, with meticulous care for detail and constructability,"
he explained. "The students were engaged because they

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Architecture July 2018