Moreno Valley College Welcome Center

In this show stopper project, the architect's desire was to utilize Parasoleil panels on the facade of the building to achieve a simulation of mountain ridges to tie in the Moreno Valley College surrounding mountain backdrop. They wanted dimensionality, not just flat panels. There was interest in different finishes as well to highlight the different mountain sections. An intricate panel layout would be required with a lot of unique panel sizes and shapes to accomplish this goal. The layout was key, with the architect expecting Parasoleil to guide the layout. The architect emphasized the panel scope was a key element in the aesthetic of the building design and could not be VE'd out.

Approach

To properly bring this vision to life, we quickly realized the panel layout was key. Our in-house engineering team devoted a substantial number of design hours toward the intricate panel and Z-Girt layout. Parasoleil's ALFA (the Art Lab For Architecture) team had suggested early on that Z-girt attachment would be the most efficient attachment method for panel layout and require the minimum number of man hours during installation. Z-girts helped with panel efficiency, allowing for the 1/8" thick panel to be used, keeping costs down. Panel edge returns help hide the sub structure and provide a dimensional quality to separate the different mountain ridge sections, a key goal of the design team.