One Vanderbilt’s terra-cotta façade stands out on the Manhattan skyline. Credit: Raimund Koch
Terra-cotta tiles add texture and color to One Vanderbilt’s façade. Credit: Raimund Koch
One Vanderbilt is clad in curtain wall panels made of glass and terra-cotta panels. Credit: Michael Moran/ OTTO
The age-old cladding material is having a renaissance in cities around the world. Part of the reason—its sustainable bona fides.
In cities across the country, a new crop of tall buildings exchanges the all-glass façades favored in decades past for terra-cotta cladding. In some ways, this material is an aesthetic throwback, calling to mind the twentieth-century skyscrapers of Cass Gilbert and Louis Sullivan, but a revolution in how terra cotta is produced has established this ancient ceramic material as a high-tech sustainable choice for buildings of all shapes and sizes. Thinner terra cotta panels, like those that give KPF’s One Vanderbilt its unique textured façade, can be hung on a modern curtain wall assembly without overloading structural systems. Additionally, new energy efficiency regulations for buildings in cities such as New York, Boston, and San Francisco favor terra cotta over vast expanses of glass because of the material’s insulative properties.
To realize One Vanderbilt, KPF worked with Boston Valley Terra Cotta to devise a unique pattern for the building’s façade panels that references nearby icons, like the Chrysler Building and Grand Central Terminal, while creating a new landmark on the Manhattan skyline. Read the full story here.