Far from the soaring glass towers of the waterfront, the heart of Long Island City is experiencing a surge in residential development that has the municipality on track to double in size. One such development, 46-09 11th Street Apartments, is drawing the area’s population farther inland. Standing 6 stories, this 65,000 sq. ft. development boasts 59 rental units primed for habitation by young professionals and artists flocking to this trendy area.
Designed by New York City’s GF55 Partners, 46-09 11th St. sports a brick frontage designed as a contemporary response to the many small-scaled LIC manufacturing buildings. The 200 ft., block-long façade is bisected by a perforated aluminum screen wall, engineered and fabricated by MetalTech-USA of Peachtree City, GA.
“The metal panels were used as a way to help break up the block-long façade and to help break down the scale of the façade,” says Leonard Fusco of GF55 Partners. “It was a perfect juxtaposition of materials. Metal/brick: light vs. heavy.”
The addition of the metal panel screen wall helps create an identity for the building and serves as a visual element to identify the entranceway. The perforated panels are back-lit with LED lights allowing it to still be a prominent feature even at night.
MetalTech-USA was chosen to fabricate this perforated cassette screen wall utilizing 1,500 sq. ft. of 0.125” aluminum. The design called for the alternating panels to angle inward and outward creating a zig-zag effect and giving the center section of the building’s mass a distinct sculptural effect. All panels were anchored to a vertical substrate using aluminum angles. Therefore, MetalTech-USA created panels with a triangular profile to provide a matching flat attachment surface. The undulating design of the system and variety of panel sizes provided MetalTech-USA VP of Project Management Eric Simonsen a challenge to achieve uniformity.
“The design presented fabrication challenges for us to work through and these are the kind of projects we enjoy working on,” says Simonsen. “We had a great installer on this project and the high level of communication between us resulted in a great final product.”
The installer on this project was Façade Technologies, Inc. of Birdsboro, PA.