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Lake Forest, Ill. — Sept. 23, 2014 – Employing a large translucent canopy made of CPI Daylighting’s Quadwall system across the entire interior perimeter of Costa Mesa High School’s new building enabled the school to meet California’s stringent architectural requirements.
The project used a Class B fire-rated roof construction as well as CPI’s bi-color panel design options to showcase the school colors.
“It is a great solution that lets in daylight and blocks out heat and glare from the sun,” said Kevin Wilkeson, AIA, LEED AP, principal, HMC Architects, Ontario, Calif. “This allowed the entry atrium shade shelter and second-level walks to provide much protection while still being bright and open. It also allowed the cross-bracing patterns of the steel supporting structure to cast shadow patterns on the covered walks that adds another layer of depth to the building while maintaining clean, simple lines.”
The upper walkway and entrance were installed below the steel structure to provide a contemporary seamless design and create a watertight system. This design required a lot of coordination during the design phase in order to achieve the vision of the HMC architectural team while meeting the structural and fire sprinkler requirements.
In addition to the skylight and fire-rated canopy that was seamlessly integrated with the school’s roof system, translucent wall panels with integrated vision glass in the classrooms combine to create the appearance of a single system. In total, 7,200 square feet of translucent panels with CPI Daylighting’s Quadwall and its patented removable skin technology (RST) deliver a versatile, high-performance solution that created an open, light-filled campus environment for Cost Mesa students and staff, while protecting them from the hot West Coast sun.
The Quadwall system is made up of an assembly of independent translucent insulated panels, resulting in one integrated, high-performance daylighting system. Scalable, the Quadwall system can be configured with additional insulation, sound reduction, dynamic shading, additional structural performance, military forced entry resistance, and/or Class A and B fire-rated roof assembly (as employed at Costa Mesa).
Joined by a mechanically interlocking connection, the dry-glazed Quadwall system eliminates the need for vulnerable adhesives, adding both durability and even light distribution via the system’s patented tight-cell technology.
CPI Daylighting’s Quadwall is the only system that can provide indefinite building envelope protection with its removable exterior panel feature.
For Costa Mesa, the ability to customize the interior and exterior panels in ice white matte interior and green exterior in coordination with the school’s colors was an additional selling point. Should the school ever opt to change the exterior color, the panel’s RST system would enable this at a minimal cost.
“Combining two colors provides more depth and variety and enabled us to select shades that work with the new building, but also ties into the existing campus color scheme,” Wilkeson said.
