This freestanding pavilion, which currently resides in Foley Square, was first temporarily installed in the World Trade Center PATH station. It functions as a recording studio for the StoryCorps organization, which collects and archives American oral histories. The facade is composed of [Panelite’s ClearShade Honeycomb IGU] in the interspace, diffusing light, reducing solar heat gain, and providing privacy to the occupants. Steel mullions, within a painted hollow steel section frame, support the insulating glass units. All components of the pavilion are designed to be demounted and re-erected at a new location with ease. Front collaborated with Mesh Architectures on the enclosure from schematic design through construction administration. [From Front Inc.’s website]
StoryCorps, modeled after the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930’s, through which oral-history interviews with everyday Americans across the country were recorded, is a national project to instruct and inspire people to record each others’ stories in sound. Mesh conceived a soundproof, mobile recording studio. It appears bright and engineered on the outside to let you know it is technologically advanced, packed with digital equipment. But the inside is warm, almost domestic in tone to help interlocutors feel comfortable. The outside is also a display, telling StoryCorps’s story and inviting passersby to listen to some of the stories. [From Mesh Architectures’ website]
Additional features of ClearShade units:
- ClearShade – TC7 is a clear transparent honeycomb which (compared to other honeycomb colors) provides additional luminosity, softer transparency, and unique effects when backlit
- ClearShade units have an STC rating of 36 for sound attenuation
- LED strips are installed at the top and bottom to backlight the panels
- 3rd party vinyl graphics are applied to a glass surface
- Flush, minimal installation details include a steel profile tube system with structurally glazed IG units
Architect: Eric Liftin, MESH
Designer: Michael Shuman, MASdesign
Structural Engineer: FRONT Inc.
Photos: Jill Fredrickson or Christopher Weil, as noted
Product: ClearShade IGU CS-TC7-1000-1000
