Monday, May 9, 2016

That Rainbow Building in Anaheim


That Rainbow Building in Anaheim
Aya Miyawaki

The city of Anaheim is a town in Southern California and most famous for “The happiest Place on Earth”, Disneyland Resort. However, today I will tell you one fabulous place you should see in Anaheim besides Disneyland Resort!

If you drive on the 57 freeway or anywhere near there, you will probably see a huge unique-shaped building with fluffy-cloud-looking things on top of it. If you drive at night, you will see the night version of it, a beautiful translucent structure illuminated in rainbow colors.

The Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, known as “ARTIC”, is an intermodal transit center, and one of the most recent “green” building projects in Orange County. ARTIC is located between Honda Center and Angel Stadium of Anaheim, where is considered as a center of Anaheim. It links six different transportation facilities such as Amtrak, Metrolink, OCTA bus service, Anaheim Resort Transportation, Megabus.com and Greyhound.

The project was collaboratively done by HOK, Parsons Brinckerhoff , and BuroHappold Engineering in 2014, and for its great energy efficiency and outstanding design, ARTIC has achieved LEED Platinum certification, which is the highest level of certification in LEED, and other numerous awards such as United States Green Building Council Eco City Award, AIA Los Angeles Design Awards, and many more.

The building is structured with steel arches and covered with a 200,000-square-foot (about 4 1/2 Football Field) ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) roof system, which diffuses sunlight to illuminate the interior space of the building through rice paper. ETFE is a lightweight
fluorine-based plastic with high corrosion resistance and strength over a wide temperature range, and considered as a sustainable material because it also has a high-energy radiation resistance properties and as a result, it is able to reduce heat gain while maximizing the light flooding into the center. It also helps lower the cost. This material has a lot of benefits in terms of environmental and economic consideration.

More interestingly, as briefly mentioned earlier, the building reveals its another look at night - 1,354 LED lights mounted on the diagrid structure illuminate the building in various colors. LED light bulbs are considered to be sustainable because they are extremely energy efficient and last long. For example, a LED bulb can cut energy consumption by over 80% compared to conventional light bulbs, and besides, it can last up to 25% longer. The use of LED light bulbs was really successful on this project because this simple yet unique shaped building shows the beauty of LED lights very effectively while saving energy and money.


 The entrance with 120-foot-tall glass curtain walls provides an open feeling and welcoming atmosphere. Exterior glazing at the north and south elevations have low-emissivity coatings which helps reflect unwanted sunlight in the infrared range and reject radiant heat captured by the glazing assembly itself.

After entering the building, you will notice that interior space of the building provides even more open feeling because you can see the sky through the roof. The interior space remains the sense of the exterior of the building: clean, light-scaled, and simple. There is a seating area around escalators that leads to the second floor. The chairs which bring natural texture to this minimal style space are from Grand Rapids Chair Company in Michigan, and the stainless steel outdoor tables are from Forms+Surfaces in California. The combination of the two gives a great modern harmony.

Beautiful shining terrazzo flooring is used throughout the whole building and gives clean looking to the space. Terrazzo is a sustainable material. It is a hard material composed of an aggregate and binder that has infinite design possibilities. Typically, terrazzo floors last the lifetime of the building, which is approximately 40 years.

In the restroom on the second floor, there are pretty, green-color-scheme tiles and white tiles with matte texture on the wall. They are put on the wall very well balanced: the green tiles fill up the negative space and white tiles line up very neatly remaining the cleanness, which is necessary in restrooms. Another flooring material, concrete, is used for outdoor space.


           
After all, this building is just fabulous both in architectural and interior perspectives. 
            ARTIC will continue to improve regional connectivity attracting people with its beautiful appearance and sustainability. You will be amazed by the great structure and how different it looks at night.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Beautiful lighting fixtures! I'm going :D

Unknown said...

Very impressive! I've always wondered about this building when it was first being built. I think it's amazing the building received Platinum in LEED. The place looks absolutely beautiful at night and so their choice in using LED lighting and the amount they are using is incredible. Interesting to know that they are using rice paper as part of their roof system.

Paulina Nguyen said...

I finally know what this building is now! The whole structure is so modern and is truly a refreshing addition to the area. It's great to know that it is Platinum LEED certified.

Anh Ta said...

The green-color-scheme tiles and white tiles with matte texture on the wall is really impressive!

Constantine said...

Their bartenders are nice and friendly. We stayed till closing and weren't ushered out or anything. Definitely want to go to this event space San Francisco again and see if their unlimited drinks brunch is worth it!

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