BANK OF AMERICA HEADQUARTERS, Charlotte, NC (2004)
Specifier: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Architect / New York, NY
Lighting Designer: HDLC Lighting Designer / New York, NY
Installer: NEWMAT USA LTD. / W. Babylon, NY – Nysan Shading Systems Ltd. / Calgary, Alberta
Project: Housed in the newly built Hearst Tower, the Bank of America headquarters includes a 60,000-square-foot, 3-story trading floor. SOM chose NEWMAT to build and install 12 large, 3-dimensional clouds/wings (820 square foot each) to create a “roof” of folded shapes. These wings needed to be acoustical, light reflective from their front, and light blocking from behind.
NEWMAT’s micro-perforated, double-layered membranes NEW/ACOUSTIC in white satin/S600 finish were stretched over custom aluminum skeletons. These wings, together with a full glass end-wall, give the trading floor the illusion of an airplane hangar. In addition, NEWMAT stretch ceiling system was installed on 10 large rolling doors (shades), once again in a 3-dimensional form. Here, white satin/S600 opaque membranes and white translucent/T0B insets were combined to tailor the transmission, or blocking, of the natural lighting to satisfy SOM requirements.