

CityPlace 1
CityPlace 2
ProMedica Health and Wellness Center
The Edge
The Pearl
Chelsea Green Condominiums
Golden 1 Center
Sacramento Kings Arena
Park Place Lexus
Hunt Tower
Porsche Cars North America Experience Center and Headquarters
Museum at Prairiefire
Denver Union Station Transit Center
Dennis Meas Justice Center - Pueblo County Judicial Center
Nu Skin Innovation Center
Suzanne & Walter Scott, Jr. Bioengineering Building, Colorado State University
Mile Square Health Center at the Illinois Hospital
Whitworth Robinson Science Hall, Whitworth Universitiy
Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH)
Aurora Early Learning Center
North American Headquarters
Community College of Denver - Confluence Building
Lady Bird Johnson Middle School
NASA Johnson Space Center - Building 12
Tidewater CC Learning Resource Center
Robert M. Smith Student Center, Slippery Rock University
Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing
Cooper School of Medicine - Rowan University
Los Gatos Public Library
Virginia Commonwealth University - West Grace Street Housing
Georgia Gwinnett College Library
and Learning CenterEmpire State Building
Tidewater CC Student Center Norfolk Campus
W Austin
Consol Energy Center
Pittsburgh Penguins Arena
Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse
Corporate Office Tower
Sarasota Police Headquarters
Frontier Project
Wells Fargo Center
The Austonian
Rockingham Memorial Hospital
Bakery Square
University of Minnesota
TCF Bank Stadium
700 Sixth Street NW
Pennsylvania State University - Dickinson School of Law, Lewis Katz Building
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Molecular Foundry
Geisinger Center for Health Research
PCL Centennial Learning Centre
Homer Public Library
77 CityPoint
Medical Center of the Rockies
Ohlone Community College Newark Center for Health Sciences and Technology
Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
University of Florida Library West
Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas
Heifer International World Headquarters
The Pennsylvania State University, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA)
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Center for Functional Nanomaterials
Missouri Department of Natural Resources - Lewis and Clark State Office Building
Whitehead Biomedical Research Building, Emory University
Heifer International World Headquarters
Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Heifer International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to relieving global hunger and poverty, needed a larger headquarters and wanted the project to minimize the use of earth’s resources. Heifer identified a long-abandoned railroad yard in the city’s old warehouse district and decided to transform it to suit their needs.
The building’s design captured every opportunity to achieve LEED® points and reflect the overall mission. The combination of the building’s narrow floor plate and the curtain wall allows natural light to penetrate to the center of every floor, while strategic interior glazing continues the indoor/outdoor aesthetic and keeps individual offices bright and open.
Products Used:
1600 Wall System™1 Curtain Wall
Custom Sunshades
InLighten™ Light Shelf
Trifab™ 400 Framing System
350 Medium Stile Entrances
1010 Sliding Mall Fronts
990 Sliding Doors
LEED® Platinum
FROM BROWNFIELD TO SHINING STAR: “LEED”-ING THE WAY IN LITTLE ROCK
A nonprofit organization dedicated to relieving global hunger and poverty, Heifer International provides livestock and plants, as well as education in sustainable agriculture, to financially disadvantaged families around the world. Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, the organization was faced with the need for larger headquarters, but wanted the project to minimize the use of earth’s resources. Heifer identified a long-abandoned railroad yard in the city’s old warehouse district, an environmentally dirty site known as a brownfield, and made the decision to transform it – the “green” way. One of the first of its kind in the area, the project was designed with careful consideration for the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) certification standards.
Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon Porter Architects, Ltd. developed the building’s design, capturing every opportunity to achieve LEED® points and reflect the overall mission. Glazing contractor ACE Glass Company, Inc. and the product manufacturer/design engineering team from Kawneer North America were called in to collaborate on the project. Completed in March 2006, the project is LEED Platium®.
DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS
- The curved shape of the building served to take advantage of the solar orientation by stretching in an east/west direction and maximizing sun exposure. To block excessive sunlight, the team integrated sunshades into the exterior, while Kawneer’s InLighten™ Interior Light Shelves were installed on the interior of the wall to bounce natural light up to the ceiling and reflect it into the building.
- Deeper, custom sunshades were created to be hung vertically between the punchouts, a unique design feature that served to be both aesthetically pleasing and functional, as they protect the interior from both east and west sun exposure.
- The combination of the building’s narrow floor plate and the curtain wall allows natural light to penetrate to the center of every floor, while strategic interior glazing continues the indoor/outdoor aesthetic and keeps individual offices bright and open. Fixed and storefront framing systems, in conjunction with swing and sliding entrances, were used throughout the interior offices and conference rooms. In addition, clear, frosted and green glass added a light and modern aesthetic.
CHALLENGES
- The complex design required the customization of several existing Kawneer products, and the curved building footprint complicated fabrication.
- The increased focus on recycled materials (per the Materials & Resources category under LEED®) required the coordination of a sizeable order of secondary aluminum billet necessary for the project. In fact, 97% of the building materials used for the project contain recycled content.
ARCHITECT: Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon and Porter Architects, Ltd., Little Rock, Arkansas
GLAZING CONTRACTOR: ACE Glass Company, Inc., Little Rock, Arkansas
Photography: ©Timothy Hursley