Located in the historic Armory Square District of Syracuse NY, the new Washington Station office building offers more than 126,000 square feet of Class A space. The project has been heralded as providing the missing component of a larger revitalization plan for downtown Syracuse.
Like the downtown buildings of old, Washington Station is built to last. To ensure it will achieve the kind of durability often lacking in today’s construction, the building’s designer clad its exterior in zinc. Approximately 16,000 square feet of RHEINZINK® Preweathered Blue-Gray panels were installed vertically utilizing the pressure- and temperature-equalized rainscreen Consort Panel System, fabricated by Proclad Enterprises Ltd. of St. Albert, Alberta, Canada. According to Doug Frank, Proclad director, “We’re expecting extreme life out of this particular project. It’s easy to predict that this material and panel system will last 100 years.”
The six-story building was developed by Pioneer Companies and designed by QPK Design, Syracuse. The design intent was to create a landmark that could stand the test of time and be a precedent for revitalization by building a midrise structure on a vacant site. The building offers a contemporary aesthetic that highlights the beauty of newer materials, simple lines and functional design.
The RHEINZINK interfaces with a terra cotta rainscreen system on a portion of the building which has received LEED Silver Core & Shell certification.
“We sought to scale down the massing of the building by creating different parts so that the structure wouldn’t be overwhelming,” said Eugenia Brieva, partner and senior architectural designer. “The terra cotta complements the older brick buildings in the area and the RHEINZINK harmonizes with the more contemporary metal cladding on other nearby buildings. The RHEINZINK also provides an elegant background for the punched windows with a combination of four glass colors that create a mosaic pattern partially inspired by an historic Syracuse University building nearby. And the owner really liked the fact that the zinc would patina over time.”
Both Brieva and Frank agree on the merits of a rainscreen system. “The rainscreen system is simply a better way to create a superior building envelope,” said Brieva. Doug Frank concurs. “A true rainscreen is one of the best systems you can buy,” he said. “And zinc creates such a wonderful patina—it works with the environment rather than trying to fight it.”
Installation of the RHEINZINK panels was done by Edward Schalk & Son, East Syracuse, NY.