Surface Appeal of Buildings Agawam MA

Source: residential architect Magazine
Publication date: April 1, 2007

By Nigel F. Maynard

It's not easy to design a handsome building, no matter what its type. You have to get so many elements just right if you want it to rise above the mediocre or mundane. You have to nail the usual to-do list of massing, scale, proportion, and detail. But great buildings usually have another thing going for them too: a great skin. The best ones are clad in an attractive material, with details resolved in a skillful, nuanced way. Says Sebastian Schmaling, AIA, principal of Milwaukee-based Johnsen Schmaling Architects, “It's the dress of the building—the thing people see first; the thing they want to touch.”

A few years ago, this magazine examined intriguing new cladding specs gaining traction—Cor-Ten steel and Parklex among them—and some evergreens (copper and zinc, for example) making a comeback. Today, new options are emerging faster than it takes the ink to dry on your construction drawings. Figuring out which options will endure takes diligence, patience, and ingenuity.

For firms like Johnsen Schmaling, cladding provides an opportunity to explore the possibilities of what structure can be. “We sometimes work backwards,” Schmaling admits. “We have an image of the building in mind and then find something to match.

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