Dakota Apartments Profile
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Ogden Museum Profile
The buildings of the new Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans, comprise one of the most architecturally significant complexes in the South. It involves the bold modern statement of the newly-built Stephen Goldring Hall which features the stunning glass block wall fabricated by Circle Redmont.
The Ogden Museum’s multi-year preservation and construction is one of New Orleans’ major urban projects, adding significantly to the city’s plan for marketing itself as a “New New Orleans,” reflecting renewed urban development and marketing the city as a major cultural destination. The project has helped to rejuvenate the Warehouse District and completes the neighborhood’s transformation, reflecting the importance of cultural tourism in New Orleans and in cities throughout the United States.
Local New Orleans architects from the award-winning firm of Errol Barron/Michael Toups are responsible, working with Concordia APC, designed Stephen Goldring Hall. Errol Barron/Michael Toups is known for their designs of religious, institutional, educational and business facilities, and for their expertise in the review of historical landmarks and designs.
Stephen Goldring Hall reflects the distinctive architecture of the city’s Warehouse district. The challenge in designing such a structure was many-fold. First was the need to unite the new with the old, with the exterior of Goldring Hall complementing that of the historic Library. Rather than imitating what was present in the Library’s design and construction, the architects mined the structure for its principles of geometry, including composition and organization.
Goldring Hall is based on that geometry, as well as on a host of other distinct challenges which includes assuring that a building of its size fit in with the surrounding buildings in this historic district. The building stands as a simple box that reaches all the way to the street, softened by positioning the main entrance back from the sidewalk in a courtyard setting, creating an effect of a grand Southern front porch. Stephen Goldring Hall recalls the historical significance of the Library in its use of sandstone and granite on the exterior to emulate the century-old sandstone and granite foundation of the Library. The color of Goldring Hall’s upper floors, and the building’s height - five stories - was selected to relate with the tones and scope of the surrounding structures, including the Contemporary Arts Center, its neighbor across the street.
The inclusion of block-glass walls that form the remainder of the facade’s exterior, as it took shape, forged an unexpected surprise in terms of color and form. “Its relationship to the color of the sky ties it wonderfully into the background,” explains Barron. “Additionally, as it dematerializes at its corner it lends a fairly delicate edge, yet has an inherent strength in character and structure,” says Barron.
What Barron appreciates most, though, is the structure’s effect in terms of interior and exterior light, a direct result of the mass of glass. The galleries were designed to wrap around this constant source of light,” Barron says. “And after dark, the entire building glows, acting as a lantern in throwing a soft light out onto its urban setting.”
In the end, the ultimate challenge for the team of architects was finding a middle ground between a landmark building and a background building appropriate for the neighborhood. The architects wanted Goldring Hall to have an inherent industrial dignity, in keeping with the district of warehouses in the area, straight-forward institutional structures that hold the line of the street. Yet, the challenge was to build a structure worthy of a national museum; straight-forward yet elegant at the same time.
“Museums are high points in our culture,” Barron, himself an artist as well as an architect, continues. “They contain these delicate, fragile objects that speak to our humanity. The definitive challenge then is creating an art museum that is more than a container for art, but a building that is subtle and important in its own right, yet serving as an appropriate backdrop to best showcase a collection of the magnitude of The Ogden Museum of Southern Art.”
As an example of Circle Redmont’s engineering integrity for creating structural superiority, the mass glass block façade suffered no damage during Hurricane Katrina.
Millenium Towers Profile
The Millennium Park Fountain, a gift to the people of the City of Chicago by the Crown Family, is an interactive masterpiece designed by Spanish artist, Jaume Plensa. The challenge of the project is to structure each of the 50’ high towers without blocking or penetrating a LED video wall directly behind the glass bricks. The walls of the towers are made of custom, hand-poured glass bricks caulked into a stainless steel grid. The top of the tower incorporates a concealed trough regulating the flow of water down the face of the glass bricks. The water trough, roof and LED are all supported by structural frames, which are independent of the glass brick skin allowing for expansion and contraction of the tower. The simplicity of this structure allows the water and the projected video faces to be the focus of the fountain. Prefabricated glass brick wall panels were designed, engineered and built at Circle Redmont’s facility and then erected at the job site under Circle Redmont supervision. Today, the Millennium Fountain Towers in Chicago stand as a staggering example of American ingenuity and engineering.
New York Transit Authority Profile
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University of Kentucky Profile
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Dane County Profile
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Memphis / Shelby County Library Profile
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Henry Cotton Profile
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Abercromber & Fitch Profile
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Melbourne City Hall Profile
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Maplewood Police Dept. & Court Building Profile
This building was the first LEED-certified government building in the state of New Jersey, achieving the prestigious LEED Silver Level. Circle Redmont’s glass panel systems allowed daylight to shine into the basement and fitness center of the building helping the architect and builder to satisfy the LEED daylighting credit. The beautiful terrazzo flooring in the lobby was poured around the Circle Redmont glass panels per our instructions in the project’s specs and details stage.
