La Maison Unique

La Maison Unique

S t e e l F o r m s

Atmosphere Design GroupThomas Heatherwick Studio|

PRESENTS

La Maison Unique Longchamp

Atmosphere Design GroupThomas Heatherwick Studio |22

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“more artistic than commercial” NY Times “intensely

seductive semblance of treads and risers”

Architectural Review “fluid design gets shoppers to flow inside and upstream”

Architectural Record


SoHo Showroom

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Client LONGCHAMP, Paris

Woodwork

Balustrade Panels

Lighting Designer

MEP Consultant

Vibration Analysis

Structural Engineer

Fabricator

Contractor

Architect

Designer

LOUIS LORIA , AIA |

SHAWMUT DESIGN &

HILLSIDE IRONWORKS

BUILDING STRUCTURAL SERVICESENGINEERING

STUDIO, London

GROUP, NYCCONSTRUCTION

GILSANZ MURRAY

O’DEA LYNCH ABBATISTA & ASSOCIATES

HDLC ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNLIGHTING

TALBOT DESIGNS LTD.

IMPERIAL WOODWORKING ENTERPRISES

La Maison Unique Longchamp Project Credits

STEFICEK

ATMOSPHERE DESIGN

THOMAS HEATHERWICK | HEATHERWICK



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Longchamp, a French company based in Paris manufactures and markets fine leather goods including handbags, luggage and accessories.

The company was founded in 1948 and opened it’s first factory in 1956.

The name “Longchamp” is a tribute to a famous Parisian Horse racing track.

Longchamp is a 240 million dollar business employing 800 people in the production of leather products.

In 2003 British designer, Thomas Heatherwick, designed Longchamp’s best selling handbag, “The Zip Bag”.

Longchamp products are sold in 200 stores across the United States. The SoHo store, profiled in this presentation, is Longchamp’s 100th store worldwide.

Client Longchamp



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Thomas Heatherwick was trained as a designer at Manchester Metropolitan University and at the Royal College of Art in London.

He is a Royal Designer for Industry, a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art, and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.

Thomas Heatherwick Studio was established in 1994 “to make unique design projects happen”.

The studio and workshop is located in Kings Cross, London and employs 35 architects and engineers.

Heatherwick Studio’s work has been recognized in many areas including Architecture, Sculpture, Urban Infrastructure, Product Design, and Exhibition Design.

As the designer of Longchamp’s popular “Zipper bag”, Thomas Heatherwick Studio was the ideal choice to design Longchamp’s U.S. flagship store in SoHo.

Thomas Heatherwick StudioDesigner



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Project General Information

150 tons of steel were used in the overall project

Construction time - 111,000 man-hours

Overall cost of project - $12,000,000

Height of atrium - 60’

Cumulative strength of magnets in display features - 13.5 tons (enough to support the weight of 10 N.Y.C. Taxi cabs)

Specific to Steel Landscape: Cost of steel landscape - $2,000,000. Construction time - 27,750 man hrs. (steel landscape only) Thickness of steel plates - 1 ¼” Weight - 55 tons Dimensions - 27’ x 46‘ x 60’ Number of steel “ribbons” - 30 Total length of ribbons - 1800’ Thickness of rubber strips - 3/16” + 1/16” glue Total length of natural rubber strips - 3000’ (equal to the width of Central Park)

Rendering by Thomas Heatherwick Studio



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Project Context

Site address | 128 – 132 Spring Street (between Wooster & Greene) in SoHo, NYC

Upfit of an existing historical 1936 commercial building which required hearings before the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The building once housed an architect’s office.

The building’s modest presence on the street gives little indication of the major retail space inside.

The site is urban and therefore constricted, making delivery of large steel components difficult.

“site is on the dark side of the street with very little space at street level” Thomas Heatherwick

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TOTAL NET AREA | 9830 SF

Drawing by Atmosphere Design Group

Project Program

4500 SF

SECOND FLOOR | Retail

1700 SF

THIRD FLOOR | Terrace & Offices

2130 SF

BASEMENT | Storage

1500 SF

GROUND FLOOR | Entry / Reception



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Materials draw customers from the entrance into the store and up to the second floor.

30 ribbons of steel cascade through the core.

Floor areas are finished with red maple boards.

The building’s original brick walls and cast iron columns are exposed.

The ceiling is made from laminated sheets of ash veneer.

Display fixtures are fabricated from a variety of widths pale American ash laminated panels.

Openings in the ceiling reveal the original textures of the building and the current MEP systems.

Project Materials



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A “Theater for Retail”.

A major piece of Architecture behind an unassuming facade.

A topography of walkways, landings, and steps that draw the visitor from the entrance at the ground floor to the second floor.

Longchamp wanted a unique architectural ensemble to be appreciated as one of a kind.

“If we have no store at the ground floor, then everyone has to go up”. Thomas Heatherwick

Upper floors with windows have much more light than if the retail area were located at ground level.

Atrium and skylights flood the steel river with light.

“Like insects, people are attracted to light”. Thomas Heatherwick

Design Concept



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Design Inspiration

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Design Floor Plans

1500 SF

GROUND FLOOR |

4500 SF

SECOND FLOOR |

1700 SF

THIRD FLOOR |

Gre

en S

tree

tSpring Street

Entrance

Entry / Reception Retail Terrace & Offices



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Support Distribution

Brick Wall

Vertical Support

Lateral Support

Retrofitting an existing building (1930s era) with a design this innovative made the structural engineering of the project both unusual and challenging.

Structural Interventions on the existing building: Addition of third floor Repositioning of elevator & egress stairs. Punching shaft through floors to allow for stairs,

atrium, and skylight. New foundation to support 55 ton staircase. Major structural reinforcement throughout building.

Live Loads: Roof & Monumental Stair 100 psf

1st & 2nd Floors 75 psf

Maximum Stress Allowed : Fu = 0.75 Fy

Dynamic Vibration Analysis of the monumental stair design tested both 36 KSI and 50 KSI steel. The results revealed no difference in performance so for economy 36 KSI was used.

Design Structural

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Stress Distribution



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Gre

en S

tree

t

Spring Street

Second Floor Plan

The Monumental Stair is exempt from Fire Protection since there are two other exit stairways.

The site contained an existing 36” wide egress stair.

A second fire rated (2 hour), 44” wide, egress stair

was added.

Accessibility to the upper floors is provided by a new elevator enclosed in a two hour fire rated envelope.

Maximum actual travel distance of design is 88’ - 5”

Design Egress Plan

Existing

36” Stair

New

44” Stair

88

’-5”

44’



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The display shelves which line the perimeter of the sales area share the sensibility of the steel stair in that they appear as ribbons of material cut of, but not detached from, the whole.

The forms which become the display shelves are softly

folded down from the thick ceiling panel and then in turn the individual shelves appear as layers which have progressively delaminated from that thickness of the vertical forms .

The voids left by the “peeling down” of the display units reveal the services (MEP) located in the space above.

The ceiling and display shelves were fabricated by laminating multiple layers of wood, with the final surface being a fine veneer of natural colored American ash.

Design Display Units

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“The stairway is enclosed by an impossibly etherial glass balustrade, that shimmers like transparent fabric.”

Architectural Review

The preliminary design was rigid in character and appeared to be an attempt not to compete with the highly innovative stair or to provide a counter point to its curves.

Heatherwick Studio was not satisfied with this design and spent the next year experimenting with alternate designs and materials.

The result is a balustrade that is as noteworthy as the stair it protects.

The balustrade is a series of hand-formed panels fashioned from a thermoplastic referred to as PETG (polyethylene terephthalate glycol). This plastic is generally used for the manufacture of airplane windsheilds and headlight reflectors.

True to the nature of hand crafting, each of the 46 panels is unique.

Steel uprights welded to the steel stair support both the panels and a very simple steel hand rail.

Design Balustrade

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Uninterrupted forward and upward circulation.

1 ¼” steel thick rolled steel plates form 30 sinuous ribbons.

Stair rises a height of 17’- 5” to the second floor with two landings.

Tread depth - 11 ¾ “ | Riser height - 7”

Weight - 55 tons

Fabrication time - 6 months

3/16” thick natural rubber in a warm burnt ochre color is applied to tread (top & bottom since both are exposed).

High-powered magnets attach sculptural display forms anywhere on steel “stairs” to display leather goods.

The steel handrail is enclosed by thermoplastic panels.

Steel Landscape Physical Properties

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Curved steel templates of the tread profile were cut using a water jet.

A water jet uses a jewel nozzle with a 0.004”- 0.015” diameter orifice to pin point a highly pressurized water spray on the material to be cut.

The pressure is typically between 20 - 55,000 psi

(30 times the pressure of a power washer)

A water jet system uses a supersonic erosion process in which stream velocity, not pressure cuts the material.

A water jet never gets dull & cannot overheat.

Abrasives are often added to pure water to cut tougher materials.

The mixture leaves the nozzle at a speed greater that 900 mph.

With a 30 HP pump, an abrasive jet can cut ½” thick Titanium at a rate of 7” per min.

Steel Landscape Fabrication Cutting the Steel

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S t e e l F o r m sWater Jet

Steel Landscape Fabrication Cutting the Steel



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Steel Landscape Fabrication Bending the Steel

The steel members were incrementally bent to meet pre-determined profiles.

The incremental bending was accomplished using a hydraulic press break.

All markings on the steel were eventually ground off .

Chalk marks at regular intervals determine where the Press Break will bend the plate.

The amount of curl is determined by the frequency of Press Break compressions.

The Press Break causes the plate to curl up.



S t e e l F o r m sHydraulic Press Break

Steel Landscape Fabrication Bending the Steel



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Steel Landscape Fabrication Sequence



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Steel Landscape Fabrication Sequence



S t e e l F o r m sWelding the Sections

Steel Landscape Fabrication Welding the Steel



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After the stair was fitted in the shop it was dismantled and shipped in segments to the site.

All rigging fasteners and connections were shop-welded.

The size of the segments was determined prior to the fabrication according to the installation site’s clearance dimensions.

Since no horizontal span was involved, the segment parallel to the wall was fabricated from thinner (1/2”) steel plate.

Steel Landscape Assembly

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Steel Landscape Installation Sequence



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Steel Landscape Installation Sequence



S t e e l F o r m sInstalling the Sections

Steel Landscape Installation



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Project Director David J. Thaddeus, AIA

Additional

Modeling & Animation

Software

Photography

IT Coordination

Modeling & Animation

Slide Design & Production Deborah J. Arbes, RA

Joe Corsi, Dave Mayo

Matt Parker

PowerPoint, Photoshop

Cinema - 4D (Mac)

David J. Thaddeus, AIA CoA

Presentation Production Team

David Thaddeus, Louis Loria, Heatherwick Studio, Longchamp

Information Contact:

For

UNC| Charlotte

Chun Y Lai Photography, Nikolas Koenig, Fabrice Bourrelly



S t e e l F o r m s

This presentation was made possible through funding from the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) with support from the College of Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte

I would like to express my appreciation to Louis Loria at Atmosphere Design Group, Heatherwick Studio and La Maison Unique Longchamp for

their generosity in providing information on this spectacular work.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to the following people at AISC for their help though out the duration of the project:

Fromy Rosenberg, Director, AISC University ProgramsMegan Maurer, Coordinator, AISC University Programs

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This presentation was made possible through funding from the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) with support from the College of Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte

I would like to express my appreciation to Louis Loria at Atmosphere Design Group, Heatherwick Studio and La Maison Unique Longchamp for

their generosity in providing information on this spectacular work.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to the following people at AISC for their help though out the duration of the project:

Fromy Rosenberg, Director, AISC University ProgramsMegan Maurer, Coordinator, AISC University Programs

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The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) is a non-profit technical institute and trade association established in 1921 to serve the structural steel design community and construction industry in the United States.

AISC is offering this teaching aid and learning tool for educational purposes only. The data and information in this presentation is not intended for use in the physical construction of steel structures.

The information presented here is considered public information and as such may be distributed or copied. The use of appropriate credit to for images, byline, animations, and content is requested.

We hope that you and your students will find this information useful.

Please contact Fromy Rosenberg ([email protected]) for further information on AISC or for feedback on this teaching / learning product.

Please contact David Thaddeus ([email protected]) for questions or comments on the content of this project.

TERMS



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The End

Documents

La Maison Unique