Architectural Record Features 520 Fifth Avenue

Architectural Record featured the already iconic façade of 520 Fifth Avenue, for which DeSimone Senior Associate Whitney Boykin, AIA, and our team of façade and building envelope experts collaborated with architects at Kohn Pederson Fox to realize their vision for the distinctive, innovative arched window design.

Architectural Record Journalist Leopoldo Villardi spoke to Jamie von Klemperer, president of Kohn Pederson Fox, about the design of the 1,000-foot-tall 520 Fifth Avenue, which was developed by Rabina.

Working closely with both KPF and Rabina, we designed and engineered a unitized façade system to translate the iconic arch forms critical to the design into lightweight curved aluminum assemblies—granting the team freedom to precisely tune the finishes, significantly reduce overall weight and the amount of steel needed to reinforce the façade relative to initial cementitious and ceramic cladding concepts. The team carefully developed a design and strategy for the podium to sequence building enclosure and installation of the terracotta, expediting construction and allowed the design of the terracotta to be free from the rigorous module of the storefront and curtain wall systems.

In every respect, 520 Fifth Avenue is as Villardi says in the article “a Swiss watch—precise, efficiently planned, and requiring a high degree of technical coordination.” The project is an elegant expression of that precision throughout its design and construction, in which the relentless engineering and technical coordination of the façade with the architecture, building structure, and demands of procurement and construction never detract from the vision for the project.

Read the full article here.