4220 Duncan

Exemplifying innovation and creativity within St. Louis, Missouri’s growing technology district, 4220 Duncan showcases an iridescent, color-shifting, metal-clad façade. Designed by HOK, the modern, eye-catching exterior’s unique visual effect was accomplished utilizing Valflon^® Prismatic from Sherwin-Williams Coil Coating in Rose Dust II on Dri-Design’s standard and custom metal wall panels.

Valflon Prismatic coatings are formulated with special pigmentation that allows the coatings to achieve their polychromatic look that appears to shift in color when viewed from different angles or sunlight.

“These paints are really fun,” praised HOK’s principal and senior project designer, Tim Gaidis, LEED AP BD+C. “Our use of the color-shifting paints reinforced the themes we were designing around for ‘transformational’ people and companies in the Cortex Innovation Community. The transformational paint was a perfect integrated metaphor for this transformational environment.”

As Wexford Science & Technology’s newest building, 4220 Duncan takes a prominent position in the Cortex Innovation Community and in the hub of the St. Louis life science and technology marketplace. The five-story 182,000-square-foot mixed-use commercial building provides office and lab space for entrepreneurs, researchers and tech-sector employees to work, collaborate and unwind.

The distinctive 4220 Duncan’s mixed-use office building attracts attention, while complementing the area’s mix of contemporary and historic architecture. The building envelope’s sustainable design and construction contributed to the project’s LEED^® Gold certification.

To balance 4220 Duncan’s aesthetics, performance and sustainability goals, HOK worked closely with its client Wexford Science & Technology and the project’s many design-assist partners. For the custom façade system, these included: Sherwin-Williams Coil Coatings, Dri-Design, Metal Coater for finishing, Hyde Sheet Metal Inc. for installation and Tarlton Corp. as the general contractor.

Environmental, Efficient and Effective Solutions

In total, Dri-Design manufactured 10,800 square feet of aluminum into 785 standard flat panels, custom trapezoid flat panels and custom radius corner panels for 4220 Duncan. Finished by Metal Coater in Valflon Prismatic, Dri-Design fabricated the panels into a rainscreen system, which was fully tested to ensure performance as specified. The pre-fabricated units also contributed to Hyde Sheet Metal’s accurate and efficient installation.

In actuality, there were 52 different panel sizes configured to deliver on HOK’s architectural vision. Made from 0.080-inch-thick aluminum sheet, the largest panels’ dimensions were 120 inches wide by 20 inches tall for material optimization on Metal Coater’s coil coating equipment. Bauer worked with HOK’s Gaidis to adjust the sizes where needed. Staying within Metal Coater’s size constraints also helped reduce wasted material and improved overall efficiency, ultimately saving time and costs.

Supporting 4220 Duncan’s LEED^® v3 Building Design+Construction Core and Shell Gold certification, Dri-Design also provided HOK with supporting documentation for the paint process, VOC capture and the panels’ recycled aluminum content.

“Our system is 100% recyclable. Aluminum is one of the best materials on the market to meet sustainability needs,” praised Bauer. “Fortunately, the distance from our manufacturing facility to the job site was just under 500 miles, so they received credit for that also.”

Bauer added, “We were in constant communication with the architect, general contractor and installer to meet the schedule. We made sure the material was on site when they needed it.”

To minimize on-site fabrication and reduce the opportunity for error, Dri-Design pre-punched the screw holes as part of its standard service. Further simplifying and speeding the installation, Dri-Design sequentially marked and carefully packaged each section.

Paul Sasser, Hyde Sheet Metal’s estimator and project manager, explained, “It’s like putting together a puzzle where all the pieces are about the same size. They made it very easy to install. We were finished in about two months. It went very well – fast and efficient.”

Community Building

In addition to their work on 4220 Duncan, HOK and Tarlton Corp. have completed more than 20 projects in Cortex’s live-work-play-learn destination. For more than two decades HOK has contributed to the Cortex Innovation Community – from planning the early concepts to the ongoing development and studies, and from designing the architectural exteriors to the office, lab, coworking, incubator, accelerator and other interior spaces.

Founded in 2002, Cortex is home to a vibrant 200-acre technology district integrated within St. Louis’ historic Central West End and Forest Park Southeast residential neighborhoods, and situated close to the new MetroLink station and the Great Rivers Greenway trail.

In the words of Wexford Science & Technology’s senior director, Doug Woodruff: “We aren’t just developing space. We’re building an entrepreneurial community where innovation thrives.”

“Every innovation community should be powered to be unique and different,” observed HOK’s Gaidis. “Innovation communities are more than just buildings. They are strategically built around the idea that we are more than the sum of our parts, especially with access to the most important ingredient of all: a diverse community of big thinkers and risk takers.”

Providing state-of-the-art facilities to support the nation’s most promising technology advances, Cortex offers custom lab and office space, a highly-trained workforce, access to venture capital, and proximity to world-class research institutions including Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis University and the University of Missouri−St. Louis.