north park studio, Architects LLC
The Cleveland Institute of Art asked for a new reception desk at the Gund building. The existing reception was a simple hole in the wall leading back to an original coat room. A wood infill panel was built to reduce the coat room opening and a sliding glass panel installed.
This area at the top of the steps from the main entrance sets between the Reinberger Gallery and the administrative offices.
A new desk was to be designed as a contact point people with meetings and needing directions. Standard storage areas were below the desk which also housed a couple of built-in computers with screens recessed into the desk top (old technology by today's standards). The desk would also act as a serving area for fund raising events or exhibit openings at the Reinberger Gallery.
The wood infill was removed and filled with glass block so as to allow light into the room from an outside source. This tends to make a small room less confining.
The desk itself has a soft S-curve footprint. The S-curve of the upper counter, originally designed to be glass, is offset from the desk and reinforces the softness of the curves.
All of the retrofitted specimens had significant increases in both strength and stiffness over that of the bare frame. The behavior of the specimen with the Infill panel not attached to the slabs was similar to that of a masonry wall without any connections to the frame. Although diagonal tension cracks formed within the recessed region, ultimate failure of the infill did not occur. Instead, frame-wall interaction transmitted large concentrated shear forces into the column that eventually contributed to failure of the longitudinal tension splice. For more info visit at www.composite-panel.co.uk
ReplyDeleteNice touch with the glass block infill ... Great use of available lighting with a design flare. Have any idea who installed? There is a good chance they used Pittsburgh Corning. Wanted to commend installers on a fine job.
ReplyDeleteMatt (Regional Manager - Pittsburgh Corning)