Worldwide Petrarch Inspiration

Petrarch Panels Wins Façade Awards UK “Best Refurbishment Project”

Filmworks – Remodel of the Classic Empire Cinema 

Set behind the retained historic façade of Ealing’s former Empire Cinema, the Filmworks building is a mixed-use regeneration scheme comprising 209 new homes overlooking a central square, lined with bars and restaurants, and featuring a double-height entrance foyer to the eight-screen Picturehouse Cinema, the biggest outside London’s West End.

Each perimeter facade is designed in a subtly different language, depending on the character of the particular street it is facing.

The architectural language changes towards the interior, where the contextual red brick and stone have been complemented with a more contemporary materials palette, including dark blue brick with contrasting green-glazed brick inserts and bronze-colored cladding laser cut with a distinctive, three-dimensional geometric pattern. (per tp bennett architects.)

This project won Façade Awards UKK 2022 Best Refurbishment Project. Façade Awards UK, founded by Roofing, Cladding & Insulation (RCI) magazine, celebrates the achievements of façade contractors, manufacturers, and suppliers who demonstrate an outstanding level of technical ability, and excellent quality of work.

UCONN Wins 2021 NIRSA Award

Petrarch Panels and Omnis are proud to be associated with this award-winning project.

The 2021 NIRSA Outstanding Facilities Award recently announced that The Student Recreation Center at the University of Connecticut (UCONN) has been recognized as an Outstanding Facility of Merit.

The 191,000 sq ft facility, completed in 2019, was designed by JCJ Architects and Moody Nolan. Petrarch Panels rainscreen panels adorn the exterior. The green roof and construction services were provided by Greenwood Industries.

From its new fitness center, racquetball and volleyball courts, climbing wall to flexible spaces for events and facilities, the new Rec Center has transformed the institution’s ability to offer comprehensive programs and services that foster inclusion, personal growth, and wellness for all students and its wider community.

“The NIRSA Outstanding Facilities Award honors facilities that demonstrate excellence in a number of critical areas, including architectural design, functionality, and how well the facility meets its intended purpose. Winning facilities exemplify the institution’s commitment to providing the higher education experience desired and valued by students.”

JCJ’s Chief Architectural Office, James E. LaPosta, Jr., FAIA, LEED AP says,

“This project gave us the opportunity to work closely with the students, faculty, and staff at UCONN to create an exciting facility that meets the needs of this dynamic institution. We are thrilled to have the team’s work recognized by NIRSA promoting the very best in design and innovative programs for collegiate recreation.”

Petrarch Panels representative Tim Shannon of Shannon Corporation says,

Aesthetics is primarily the first reason clients consider the use of Petrarch Panels. When this is combined with Petrarch’s excellent performance characteristics such as through colored, impact resistant, very low moisture absorption and ease of maintenance, the decision becomes easy.

Within the educational sector where products typically need to match certain criteria, Petrarch Composite Stone Panels are the perfect fit offering durability, fire qualities, ease of installation (and thus reducing cost on-site,) and appealing aesthetics.

Candela Lofts Receives US Green Building Council Award

Natasi__architects of Hoboken, New Jersey have a history of innovative designs. In 2019, natasi__architects completed the Candela Lofts, built on the site of a former candelabra factory. The Candela Lofts established a new threshold for comprehensive sustainability, advanced energy modeling, integrated building systems, and progressive building envelopes.

Designed as the first multi-family, luxury Passive House project in the United States, the building sets the standard for the integration of building science and uncompromised architectural design. Per natasi__architects:

A seven-story reinforced concrete core is enclosed by an air-tight and continuous wrapper of insulation, ultimately finished with [Petrarch Panels] engineered stone rainscreen façade. Deep, oversized recessed openings offer a warm, sunlit interior. Progressively designed ventilation systems provide a constant supply of filtered fresh air resulting in superior indoor air quality. Mechanically, Candela Lofts consumes 91% less energy than a typical building.

The project was awarded the 2019 U.S. Green Building Council of New Jersey LEED Project of the Year Award for Residential Passive House.

Green Building Features:

• Northwest Hoboken Redevelopment Zone
• Passive House certified
• Continuous insulation
• High-performance windows
• Air-tight building envelope
• LEED Platinum
• Solar Hot Water System
• Thermally-broken Concrete
• Energy Recovery Ventilation

‘Petrarch is on point at St. Sidwell’s Point’
Winner of Facade Awards

As the UK’s first Passivhaus leisure centre, this was a pioneering and highly revered project. And with no reference to speak of to influence design, everything was completely unique, requiring specialist and very much a team ethos in order to overcome any challenges. A successful collaboration between, our client MCS (to whom we pay thanks for these project highlights) Kier construction, Gale & Snowden Passivhaus specialist Architects and Space & place, St. Sidwell’s Point, was attentively designed, becoming the UK’s first Passivhaus leisure centre, resulting in a building which saves up to 70% on energy and carbon. We’re so proud to have seen our reconstituted stone rainscreen utilised on such a pioneering scheme. 

In the words of MCS

‘This project presented a number of challenges from design to construction. Such complex geometry and requirements for air sealing and interface details that far supposed the norm meant that on and off-site test rigs were used to a rigorously assess proposed details prior to their use on the wider project. Due to this strict preparations, MCS were able to achieve a project airtightness target of 0.3 m3/h/m2 first time.’

Across the whole building envelope, there are gaps amounting to no more than 770cm2, or one-and-a-half sheets of A4. With a mixture of curves, corkscrews and slanted elevations St Sidwell’s Point was always going to be a challenging project to design with a number of nonstandard panels making up the rainscreen façade and roofing, we used the 3D modelling skills of our in house design team and specialist partners to develop a digital version of the project ensuring every twist and turn could be fully developed prior to construction.

With a mixture of curves, corkscrews and slanted elevations, St. Sidwells Point was always going to be a challenging project to design. For the various non standard panels making up the rainscreen façade and roofing, we used the 3D Modelling skills of our in-house design team and specialist partners to develop a digital version of the project. This ensured that every twist and turn could be fully developed prior to construction.

The high level of communication and commitment from everyone involved led to the overall quality finish of the project and ZERO legacy defects report on handover.

During early consultation our client was informed that St Sidwell’s Point was going to be used as a benchmark for the landscape of Exeter moving forward. It has been established as a fantastic addition to the city, winning a number of awards including: The National RICS award for Environmental Impact, Best Civic Development at the Exeter Property Awards and Best Project in the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Planning Excellence Awards.