Situated atop a silty bluff where aboriginal hunters once stood to look toward the Alaskan range, the new Alaska Museum at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks makes a stunning visual statement. Visible for miles in every direction, the building was designed to convey a sense of Alaska with innovative lines & spaces evoking images of alpine ridges, glaciers breaking up on the Yukon River and the Aurora . The museum director and board wanted to create a statement structure; much like the Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain , which has become a tourist destination on its own. The architectural team headed by Joan Sorrano of Hammel, Green & Abrahmson of Minneapolis, MN in partnership with Anchorage-based GDM, flew over Anchorage, Seward, Glacier Bay, Juneau and Fairbanks to gather inspiration from Alaska ’s unique landscape for the design of the Museum, which opened on September 10, 2005.
The project was one of the most interesting we’ve worked on,” said Bob Vanucci, the project manager for the John McDougall Co., of Nashville, TN which fabricated and installed 65,000 square feet of Reynobond® ACM 4mm, fire resistant core with three coats of a custom finish white with mica flakes. “The many radii and sweeping curves had to be fabricated to exacting specifications – with allowances for the material to expand and contract as the temperature changes.” McDougall field dimensioned and fabricated 1674 panels, approximately 50% of which had rolled edges, for the museum. The interlocking panels were installed in a stair- stepped pattern, with the joints lined up at all points on the façade. The sweeping radius of the swooping roofline was also complex to engineer as it rises in places to 50 feet and drops as low as 16 feet in others.
“Reynobond® ACM was specified because there are not a lot of materials out there that could adapt to the architectural design and sweeping radii,” continued Vanucci. “The custom finish also provides an addition feature...when the sun reaches a particular point on the horizon, the entire building takes on a rosy glow reminiscent of the Aurora.”
HGA/GDM engineered the building to remain at the temperature of 69 degrees Farenheit with 35% relative humidity that’s necessary to preserve the artifacts inside even when the temperature outside drops to 50 degrees below zero or lower or when summer rains increase the humidity level. The installation was customized with additional insulation designed to withstand sub-artic conditions. The fastenings went through a 7” substrate of layered insulation, the Tyvek outer layer and two layers of plywood.
McDougall installed the rolled panels in their proprietary series 500 system. A rout & return dry gasket system offering a ½” wide x 1” deep open reveal consisting of continuous perimeter extrusions that receive the return edge of panels into pockets within the extrusions; and incorporate integral gutters, internal gaskets and weeps. For the Alaska Museum project, the gaskets were also made stronger to withstand the climatic variables. McDougall fabricated the majority of the panels in Tennessee , then shipped them via rail, barge, train and finally by truck to the site. The installation was started in May 2004, the crew worked through December then resumed again in the spring when temperatures became workable. Alaska Mechanical, Inc., of Anchorage, Alaska was the general contractor for the project.
The exterior of the Alaska Museum is a dramatic departure from big box architecture. The sweeping arch designating the entrance to the building was designed to replicate tension of glaciers coming down through the mountains. And depending on where you look at it, the building silhouette appears to mimic the sweeping profile of a mother and baby Orca whales. Inside, triple pane windows rising 30 feet high provide spectacular views of the Denali and Tanana River Basin.
The expansion project included extensive renovations to the original building, which opened in 1980. Inspired by a $1 million grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, $32.75 million was raised from Federal, State and private funds for the project that doubles the museum’s interior space, allowing almost 90% of the museum’s more than 1.4 million objects to be exhibited. When construction is completed in the Spring of 2006, the Alaska Museum will include a 3,000 square foot education center; state-of-the-art research labs for each curatorial department; expanded and visible storage areas; a living room with couches to combat “museum fatigue”, new offices for collections managers and a new wider loading dock; an expanded museum store; and the Arnold Espe Multi-media auditorium. A special alcohol collection room, with an enhanced air exchanged system was incorporated to keep biological specimens stored in alcohol separate from the rest of the museum’s research collection in an earthquake proof room.
The Alaska Museum project has been featured in articles by the Associated Press, January 21, 2005; Antennae, the World of Architecture’s April 2005 issue; and “The Tip of the Iceberg” by Ned Rozell, Alaska Magazine, May 2005.
Alcoa Architectural Products wide span of products offers a complete range of exterior and interior cladding and corporate identity solutions. From new Reynobond® Titanium CM and Reynobond® XXL, to classic Reynobond® ACM, Natural Metals, Profiled Products, Flat Sheet and Coil, architects and specifiers have found greater control over the finished appearance of their projects working with the Alcoa family of products. Alcoa Architectural Products is a business unit of Alcoa, the world’s leading producer of aluminum products. For more information about Alcoa’s complete line of products, please contact the Alcoa Architectural Products’ manufacturing plant at 1.800.841.7774 or www.alcoarchitecturalproducts.com.
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