A large, colorful, moving mural creatively conceals a newly opened, four-level, 520,000-square-foot parking garage for a global technology company in Mountain View, California. Linetec finished 111,692 individual metal flappers in 35 different colors to compose the wind-activated KINETICWALL system manufactured by EXTECH/Exterior Technologies Inc.
How it was done
The parking structure itself was designed by Gensler and International Parking Design. The building owner commissioned paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Kim West to depict different seasons of Mountain View’s natural landscape. The original artwork was then digitized by art consultant Selbert Perkins Design. For each pixel, Linetec finished an 8-by-8-inch extruded aluminum flapper panel in the corresponding color. To achieve the pixelated mural effect, 35 unique colors were chosen to match West’s original artwork.
When wind passes through the building façade’s KINETICWALL system, the thousands of painted “pixels” within the illustrated landscape move in response.
What the companies say
“Kinetics express wind wave patterns as the elements move in sequence from light to dark as they catch light,” explains Kevin Smith, director of product application and development, EXTECH.
“EXTECH’s projects with dynamic façade systems are always interesting and exciting,” says Tammy Schroeder, director of marketing, Linetec. “This California tech company project is definitely one of the most colorful and impressive projects that I can recall Linetec ever doing.”
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According to EXTECH, it also is the largest KINETICWALL project to be completed in the U.S.
For more than a decade, EXTECH and Linetec have collaborated on projects. In 2016, they worked together on the KINETICWALL installation at Boston’s Logan International Airport’s parking garage extension consisting of more than 48,000 anodized aluminum flapper panels.
