On November 3, Facades+ will return to Los Angeles for one of its largest events of the year. Co-chaired by HOK principals Adaeze Cadet and David Frey, the program will bring six presentations on the best of Southern California building enclosures to an audience in Downtown Los Angeles. Attendees will be able to attend virtual workshops on November 4, to earn extra AIA credits and a chance to delve deeper into sustainable and high-tech facades. AN has previewed the conference here, but check out the website for a full agenda and registration details.
Civic Perspective
Mic Patterson, cofounder of the Facades Tectonics Institute, will open this year’s event by delivering the Civic Perspective. A stalwart of the facades community and longtime friend of Facades+, Patterson will reflect on the ways that the industry has changed, and his urgency for facades to do better in terms of carbon considerations.
Classical Performance Through Modern Computation
HOK principal Paul Woolford and director of regenerative design Sean Quinn will kick off the morning’s first panel with a detailed presentation of The Dr. Allen & Charlotte Ginsburg Human-Centered Computation Hall at the University of Southern California (USC). The new home for the school’s Department of Computer Science rises seven stories and covers 116,000 square feet with a face that blends into USC’s historic campus. Featuring brick and high-performance glazing, the hall’s curtain walls factor in solar gain and daylighting while providing views of the campus to occupants, meeting performance goals. Upon completion next year, it will be USC’s first LEED Platinum building.
Drawdown: The Decarbonization and Optimization of the Building Envelope
The most pressing front of the facades world is, arguably, decarbonization. The role of the building envelope in contributing to embodied and operational carbon calculations is significant, and this panel will demonstrate the potential for better design with three AEC experts. ZGF Architects’ principal Anne Cotter and Hensel Phelps area superintendent Jennifer Hoover will present their work on the California Air Resources Board’s new headquarters in Riverside, California. The 403,000-square-foot project incorporated a photovoltaic system that, when combined with the rest of the building’s performance, makes it the largest net-zero energy building in the United States. Cotter and Hoover will be joined by cove.tool cofounder Patrick Chopson, who will demonstrate the ways in which architects can most effectively make change in terms of environmental performance. Cotter, Hoover, and Chopson will discuss the importance of considering embodied carbon specifically for building enclosures as they seek to demonstrate the viability of reducing embodied carbon in facades. The panel will be moderated by Forrest Zhang, an associate at HOK’s San Francisco office.
The afternoon will begin with a keynote from Mauricio Rocha. Rocha is the founder of Taller Mauricio Rocha, and a recipient of numerous awards, including the Gold Medal at the 8th and 10th Biennales of Mexican Architecture and the Médaille d ́Or Palmarés from the Academy of Architecture of France. Rocha was named a member of the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices program in 2013, and holds the Federico Mariscal Chair of the Department of Architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Rocha will provide an overview of his practice’s wide ranging use of natural materials, including on the recently-completed expansion of the Museo Anahuacalli. Rocha’s work has continually celebrated the use of local materials and emphasized the importance of understanding local contexts, and will bring a new face of the possibilities of facades to a Southern Californian audience. The keynote will be moderated by AN’s editor-in-chief Aaron Seward.
Mass Timber in California: Climate Conscious Facades
As interest in mass timber continues to grow, including among facade experts, so do its potentials. Thomas Robinson, founding principal of LEVER Architecture, Joe O’Neill, senior vice president at CannonDesign, and Craig Booth, principal at CannonDesign’s Yazdani Studio, will speak on their work in bringing high-performance mass timber design to California. Robinson will be presenting 843 N Spring Street, one of the largest cross-laminated timber buildings in Los Angeles. Featuring natural ventilation and exposed timber overhangs on balcony spaces, the facade brings carbon-conscious design tools to new offices in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood. O’Neill and Booth will round-out the panel with a presentation on the Resnick Sustainability Center at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The building’s facade—currently under construction—will feature fritted low-E glazing, shading fins, and a transparent scrim that will lure the eye to the research that will be conducted in the interior. This panel will be moderated by HOK senior associate Frank Cauthen.
Delegated Design: Realizing Google Bay View
Facades+ LA will finish with a spotlight on Google Bay View. Reflecting the highly collaborative process behind the building’s design, the presentation and discussion will include Heatherwick Studio senior associate Christopher McAnneny, Arup Senior Engineer Tim Fuller, and Zahner vice president Anthony Birchler. The group will cover technical aspects of the facade, including its eye-catching roof, and the importance of integration materials choices early in the design process.
Virtual Workshops
Attendees can tune into virtual workshops on November 4 for an opportunity to earn additional AIA credits and technical topics. Presentations will include a revival of a brutalist facade at the University of California, San Diego by Architectural Resources Group, a focus on polycarbonate in AUX Architecture’s Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center, and a demonstration of carbon accounting tools from KieranTimberlake, EHDD, and the Miller Hull Partnership. See a full list of workshops here, and save your seat today!
