This course is part of the Metal Architecture Academy

Case Study

Photo courtesy of Nucor Insulated Panels Group

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Contractor: Hensel Phelps Construction
Date completed: October 2022

In the center of downtown Salt Lake City, the Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City adjoins the Salt Palace Convention Center. The 26-story building houses 700 hotel rooms, meeting spaces, ballrooms, dining venues, bars, a rooftop terrace, and more. Each guest room is designed with floor-to-ceiling windows to showcase a beautiful view of the city’s skyline. The hotel is within walking distance to the city’s vibrant Main Street, Temple Square, Capitol Theatre, City Creek Center, Vivint Arena, and many more attractions.

During the design phase, the project team needed an exterior cladding solution that could accommodate a fast-paced construction schedule, requiring material with a simple, fast installation. In addition, the team sought material that would seamlessly integrate with the glass curtainwall design, the facade’s defining feature.

Designers chose IMPs to meet the multiple demands. “There was a lot less lay down area for materials on the jobsite, so using products that could be delivered on time and installed quickly was pivotal,” said Steven Huck, District Sales Manager for CENTRIA.

Crews installed an IMP which consolidates six wall components into one product, creating distinct architectural wall profiles capable of matching any building design. Of key importance for the hotel, the IMPs integrated seamlessly with the glass wall, window, and louver systems. Selecting an IMP allowed for this design freedom without compromising thermal performance. Since the building envelope system consolidated six components into one, waste was reduced and installation simplified.

“Choosing an IMP had a lot to do with the panel’s ability to integrate seamlessly with the glass curtainwall,” said Huck. “Given the height of the building, we were able to cut back on labor resources by only having to go around the building one time, with one product.”

Where the convention center hotel attached to the main building, designers chose selected IMPs which combined the best of aesthetics, performance, sustainability, and value. The lightweight wall panel system provided flexibility with long lengths, various finish options, and allowed for vertical installation to add visual appeal.

Crews broke ground on the Hyatt Regency in 2019, and the hotel opened its doors in October 2022.

IMPS AND SUSTAINABILITY

As an advanced engineered material, the steel behind IMPs is the material of choice for engineers and architects because of its strong performance characteristics, durability, reliability, versatility in design, and consistency as a product.

While certain natural materials, like wood, may appear to have a more favorable CO2e profile, this can be misleading as all impacts should be considered in responsible material selection. It is also important to consider the effect of service life on this analysis. A structure which lasts half as long as another should be considered as having twice the impact for comparison purposes. With many green advantages over other materials, metal can reduce energy consumption, improve air quality and thermal comfort, help comply with energy codes, and minimize environmental impacts. Steel lasts longer, requires less maintenance, and is completely recyclable, unlike many other construction products. Pioneering new production methods that include manufacturing steel from green hydrogen have helped to further reduce embodied carbon content of certain insulated metal panel products by up to 25 percent.

Photo courtesy of Nucor Insulated Panels Group

The Cannon, an entrepreneurial hub in Houston, Texas, called for more than 90,000 square feet of insulated metal panels (IMPs) for walls and roofing.

Photo courtesy of Kingspan Insulated Panels

Designers of the University of Arizona Medical Center South Campus building in Tucson, Arizona, chose IMPs to meet short construction deadlines, high design standards, and demanding environmental conditions.

Steel also sidesteps the waste associated with other types of construction, including wood construction, because it is cut to order and is infinitely recyclable. A key step to avoiding embodied carbon is reuse. Metal is the only known construction material that can be recycled indefinitely with little impact on material properties. This allows it to be repurposed in the same exact form, a process called closed-loop recycling. Not only are excess and scrap metals such as steel and aluminum readily and easily recyclable, it remains financially viable to recycle metal. This ensures that envisioned impact reductions actually will happen, instead of only existing “on paper.” Sixty to 80 million tons of steel scrap is recycled each year into new steel products in the U.S. alone.

“The excellent recyclability of steel is one of its strongest environmental attributes,” says Trisha Montalbo, senior consultant, thinkstep, Boston. “Additionally, with respect to carbon footprint and demand for nonrenewable energy resources, most of the metal wall assemblies were preferable to the concrete-based assemblies.”

Shop-fabricated metal components reduce onsite labor, cycle time, and construction waste. A 2,000-square-foot residence framed in steel produces less than 2 percent leftover material, all of which can be recycled, compared to wood framing, which yields an estimated 20 percent waste going to a landfill.

Case Study

Photo courtesy of Kingspan Insulated Panels

Location: Richmond Hill, Canada
Building owner: Toronto Montessori School
Contractor: TriAxis
Date completed: January 2020

Architects Farrow Partners Inc. were tasked with creating a brand-new atrium lobby, office area, and gymnasium for the Toronto Montessori School Bayview Campus ahead of the school’s 60th anniversary. It was critical for the design to incorporate the principles of Montessori education, invoking a sense of curiosity and exploration. This included interesting shapes, plays on natural light, and the materials used.

Weather was a concern for both construction and future energy use. Ontario’s harsh winters limit the building season and require the building envelope to be closed-in more quickly.

The facility was designed to be sustainable, using glued laminated Douglas fir timber, along with fire-rated insulated metal panels that provide superior thermal efficiency during the cold Ontario winters. The use of the triangle metal accent fins allowed architects to continue incorporating a triangular pattern into the exterior façade, while highlighting the natural lines of the insulated metal panels.

The insulated metal panels’ all-in-one assembly and need for only an installer allowed for swift construction that ensured the building envelope was closed ahead of winter. The project took 19 months from groundbreaking to opening.

Fire rated IMPs provide a fire-resistive rating of up to three hours with an R-value of up to 3.6 per inch. They share the same exterior profile options as other panels used on the building for a seamless transition.

When equipped with closed-cell insulation cores, the selected wall panels have an R-value of up to 8 per inch. This provides some of the best thermal efficiency available on the market, reducing energy costs for decades to come. During the summer of 2020, Toronto Montessori School added solar panels to the roof, allowing the building to generate its own electricity starting in October 2020, while reducing the energy required to heat or cool the building.

Toronto Montessori School’s Bayview Campus stands as a testament to curiosity and to nature, meeting early design goals and future sustainability goals for years to come.