San Antonio Center, Mountain View, California

Levolux was provided with CGIs that showed the scope and complexity of the solution required for this 1300 bay, 25,000 square foot car park at the San Antonio Center. The Ligniti solution from Levolux not only had to provide screening of the car park structure and ventilation through the building, but a key element of the design was a rather unusual brief on aesthetics. International Parking Design – an architectural practice specialising in the design of parking structures – had a vision for the building to appear as though it was draped in a silk sheet across all 4 elevations.

The Levolux design team took up the challenge to turn this exciting concept into reality. Using the supplied CGIs, staff custom-designed the profile of each individual panel in sequence to build up the desired crease effect in the ‘silk sheet’. Working in AutoCAD 3D, the design team was able to quickly visualise the aesthetic, whilst taking into consideration the practical considerations of structural integrity, connection back to sub-structure, manufacturing, ease of installation and, of course, budget.

During the design and development process, Levolux worked closely with the project stakeholders – including the General Contractor, DevCon, and the specialist contractor, BT Mancini – to ensure that the detailed design achieved the client’s very specific brief. Indeed, Levolux supplied mock-up panels as part of the process to allow the project stakeholders to visualise the finished system before finalising the design details and moving into the manufacture stage.

Levolux designed and manufactured 1800 shaped Ligniti profiles, formed by using water jet cutting technology to provide the striking elliptical-shaped edges that enabled the concept design to be realised. Each profile was finished with a silver-grey coloured polyester powder coating to complete the desired aesthetic.

Levolux strives to provide value to its clients by solving technical problems, developing commercial solutions and managing technical risks. As demonstrated here, this value is maximised when the Levolux team is involved at concept design stage all the way through to practical completion.