Owners create regional focal point with contemporary building design

When the physician-owners of Family Eye Center first envisioned building a new regional center in Willmar, Minn., offering a total package of eye care services – from yearly eye examinations to LASIK and cataract surgery, treatment of eye diseases, fashion and budget eye ware, and contact lens fitting – they wanted the building’s architectural design to stand out.

High-Performance Identity at Rusnak Mercedes

Rusnak Auto Group wanted a “high-tech,” high-performance identity for its new Arcadia, CA dealership – an identity compatible with the fine Mercedes automobiles available there. To help project the desired image, Alucobond® Material by 3A Composites USA Inc. was chosen for architectural signage as well as exterior cladding of the auto dealership itself.

Alucobond Plus Material accents RiverView II, a luxury condominium tower on the north bank of the Chicago River overlooking Lake Michigan. With a final completion date of April 2005, RiverView II connects to a previously constructed, and smaller, first phase tower.

Alucobond® Material Courtyard Adds “High-Tech” Look

How do you introduce the “high-tech” look of metal as part of an engineering building on a university campus where brick makes a traditional statement? A suggestion of metal in the context of a brick exterior leads to a courtyard where the walls are clad predominantly in Alucobond Material—at the University of California, Riverside, Engineering Building Unit 2. Also introduced as a complement to brick on the exterior, sandstone is utilized as part of the courtyard as well. Overhead, the courtyard canopy of PVC fabric becomes an innovative design element that mixes well with the high-tech look of Alucobond Material cladding.

Cinema Marquee Shines and Relates

The cinema marquee at the Regal Cinema in Crocker Park, OH, (reference Westlake, OH) shines with its neon and lighted signage reflecting off its tasteful, sophisticated terraced tower of Alucobond® composite metal panels. The marquee was designed to be “reminiscent of the Art Deco style of the 1920s and ’30s,” according to Paul Deutsch, AIA, Principal of Bialosky + Partners Architects of Cleveland, Ohio. The marquee draws attention, and movie fans, to the cinema as a diverse mix of other materials — including stucco, GRC (glass fiber reinforced cement), brick, and glass – add to the building’s visual interest. Retail storefronts in Crocker Park are designed to the needs of each tenant, while the overall design aesthetic results in “an exciting urban street level experience.”

McCarran Expansion Repeats Alucobond® Material

The April 2005 completion of a 10-gate expansion of the Satellite D Concourse and a new Ramp Control Tower at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada features exterior panels of Alucobond Material. This project continues the design vision and Alucobond Material selection established with the construction of the 26-gate Satellite D Concourse completed in 1998. Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects of Henderson, Nevada handled both projects.