On September 12th, the FACHADES+ Conference Series will take place in Chicago in the Voco Chicago in the city center. The event offers a whole day with the programming that was developed in cooperation with the Smithgroup directors Matt Dumich, Coty Sandberg and Jason Smith. The participants are also asked to visit the methods + materials Gallery, in which 22 exhibiting construction companies are exhibited.
Click here to find more information and register.
Stories of origin: circumstances and experiences that shape our projects
At the first session of the day, moderators from Smithgroup will share the background stories of four unique projects. In every story, four key elements are examined – structure, characters, conflicts and solution – to meet the design process with a narrative lens. The details of how various facade strategies and systems have been developed and implemented will highlight the speakers how integrated design and cooperation can overcome complex challenges.
Reclad -Aktualization: A facade informed by nature that is informed
The Studio Gang project manager Kristina Eldrenkamp and the Studio Nyl Founding Manager Chris O'Hara will present populus hotel, a legendary new building in the city center of Denver with a facade that is inspired by the unmistakable patterns of the Aspen Tree bark. The facade is made of fiber fiber reinforcement concrete (GFRC) and serves both as a defining design features and as an important contribution to the performance of the building. The speakers also share strategies that are used to tackle the technical challenges of panelization and production.
Citizens' facades: stories from the women Green Line Station
In this session, speakers from Perkins & Will and Smithgroup present a new station, which serves the women's station along Lake Street west of the city center of Chicago. In the past ten years, the CTA has worked on reopening historical stations along the increased green line, many of which have been closed since 1948. Perkins & Will, Carl D'ilva, and the architecture designer David Rader, will highlight the technical services of the new station, the material and glassing decisions, the strategies for accessibility, the considerations for comfort and the overview of themal comfort and more.
Envelope excellence: materials, skills and advanced engineering
In this roundtable discussion, experts from the leading manufacturers will examine the latest progress in the areas of high-performance buildings. The speakers will highlight newly available products, have innovations on the horizon preview and give insights into how architects can work with manufacturers to integrate these technologies into their designs. The conversation will also address the further developed code requirements, sustainability goals and performance improvements that shape the future of the industry.
Material trends in design and construction: transformation of the supply chain of the facade
In this roundtable conversation, Bill Zahner, CEO of the architecture metal company Zahner, and Juanita Garcia, Senior Project Manager at Pepper Construction, will examine how emerging techniques and materials change in the AEC industry. Zehner will discuss how his company reduces waste and improves the product recyclability in its production facilities, while Garcia will highlight her team's strategies for reducing the embodied carbon in large projects.
Scaling: 400 North Lakeshore Drive
In the last session of the day, the speakers from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (Som) and the related Midwest present the design of the 400 Lake Shore Drive-one Skyline-changing development in Chicago with a few 900-foot turrets. The articulated setbacks along the eastern and western increases create terraces with a view of the city center, the river and the lake, while the north and south facades reinterpret the legendary bay window in Chicago in a contemporary form, which maximizes daylight by detailed design. The session will also cover the technical details, material strategies and sustainability goals of the project.