Design Stories 3.03

RAC Materials

In designing the Rochester Art Center (RAC), we were confronted with the fact that our building was so much smaller than the adjacent civic center. To give it a stronger presence with a differentiated purpose, we decided to create the building as sculpture. To aid in that sculptural quality, we distilled the design to just two materials which clad each form lending a more sculptural reading than architectural.

A clarity of materials lends to a stronger abstraction of the art object. This is also true in architecture where material purity enhances the architectural sculptural form. Metal shingles allow for a wrapped cladding that helps emphasize form over planes.

RAC will continue to change through the decades. The Tower’s copper over time has changed dramatically in color from a bright penny shine, to red, to purple, and finally has hints of light green. Zinc also forms patinas, from shiny silver to a soft gray. Materials help emphasize the power of the forms—the Box is shiny zinc and floats. The Tower which does all the work is copper, heavy and grounded. The materials become an animated, anchoring element of the overall design.