Facade Modeling

Figure 14: Facade of Hearst Tower

Figure 14 shows the Façade of the Hearst Tower which happens to also be the Diagrid system that the structure uses. To replicate the skin onto my model, I had to:  

1.       Create the glass curtain panels with horizontal mullions onto the Top and Bottom Shape masses

2.       Create a form that follows the same path as the Diagrid system of the Hearst Tower.

To achieve the first goal, I made a custom curtain panel from the stock rectangular surface pattern. The custom curtain panel is shown in Figure 15, in which there is only one solid rectangular form made from two rectangular reference lines at the corner reference points. It is only done on one side in order to prevent overlapping. For the Top Level and Bottom Level Shapes, the number of rows and columns of divided surfaces are set as a function of the width and height, there is a row of panels at every 10 feet and a column of panels at every 9 feet 6 inches for the W1 direction and 8 feet 4 inches at the W2 direction.

Figure 15: Custom Curtain Panel

For goal number 2, I needed to make a path of reference lines that wraps around the Top Level or Bottom Level Shape (Figure 16 and Figure 17). Once I have achieved this, I can create a shape for the Diagrid system at an end of the path and create a lofted solid form for the Top/Bot Level Shape by simply selecting the end shape and tab selecting every diagonal reference line around the Top/Bot Level Shape. I made the depth of the Diagonals in the Diagrid system a 1/16^th of the height of the Level Shape. The final product can be seen in Figure 20 and Figure 21.

Figure 16: Diagrid Layout

Figure 17: Reference Line Wrap

For the Base Level Façade (Figure 19), I modeled the mega-diagonals that the Hearst Tower has at its base level for additional lateral support. They are simply a solid form that is parametric with the height and width of the base level. There are 6 total mega-diagonals and I approximated their depth to be about 90% of the column depth. The façade of the space between the Columns consists of three panels where the middle panel has a vertical mullion that is significantly larger than the ones on the levels but not as thick as the columns. These panels will not increase in number as the base level gets bigger.

Figure 18: façade Conceptual Mass	Figure 19: façade Base Level
Figure 20: façade Top Level Shape	Figure 21: façade Bottom Level Shape