Kenpat and their team of experts made hanging a tile clad façade from the fourth-floor slab of a concrete superstructure look easy. “We built the equivalent of a Swiss watch out of metal studs. The Frost Museum of Science Aquarium façade has a complexity that I have never seen in my 30 plus years in construction,” said Mark Sokoloff, Senior Project Manager, Kenpat.
 
Radius Track Corporation designed and precision fabricated cold-formed steel hat-channel, structural stud framing and doubly curved angle assemblies directly from the 3D model. The vented cavity framing bridged the gap between an as-built concrete superstructure and a façade assembly that demanded absolute precision. The team of experts developed unique structural details and installation methods to successfully wrap the stucco, tile, and linear parallelogram patterned façade with constantly changing curvature around the aquarium building.
 
Metal sheathing backs the finished tile surface assembly and is uniquely lapped to direct errant water in the system inward to a vented cavity. The cavity is formed by a lattice of Radius Track pre-curved hat-channel fastened through waterproofing and 2 layers of fiberglass-faced drywall into Radius Track pre-curved stud framing.
 
The award-winning result delivered the design intent. Moreover, the entire façade system is engineered to withstand L/720 loads, category 5 hurricane forces, high impact projectiles, and received Miami-Dade NOA.