Detail: Two Union Square Tectonic Wall

摘要

In creating a feature wall that abstracts the rock bluffs of the Puget Sound region for Two Union Square's third-floor lobby renovation, in Seattle, NBBJ senior associates Sarah Steen and Daniel Cockrell wanted to use parametric design "in an unpredictable manner," Steen says, similar to the way tectonic activity is uncontrollable by humans. NBBJ wrapped the tower's reinforced concrete core in approximately 1,650 curved panels of pale travertine, quarried and custom fabricated by the Poggi Brothers in Tivoli, Italy. For the focal point, the design team used Grasshopper and Rhino, establishing a set of parameters that would maximize the number of triangular sizes and shapes to keep the panels as irregular as possible. Then they "allowed the script to connect the dots and create this network of angles," Steen says.