Square Footage

Program/Scope

• First and foremost, the client wanted a "world class" facility.
• He wanted to use products that combined long life with low maintenance.
• He expressed the desire for a "striking design." He was open to anything from Mediterranean to modern. For him, the specific style was not as important as the fact that it be special.
• FBO (fixed base operator) charter aircraft service – flight service for corporations.
• Large, 120’ x 220’ clear span hangar for aircraft and helicopters.
• 20,000 SF office space for corporate offices and related services, including terminal lobby, pilot’s lounge, flight planning and briefing rooms, maintenance shop, training classrooms and simulators and offices.

Budget / Construction Cost

Unusual Characteristics

• Clerestory windows at the lobby atrium.
• Canopies – one is free form like a wing to express freedom of flight.
• The outwardly sloping walls in the atrium induce a sense of expansiveness when experienced from the interior, but also have a more practical aspect: cutting down glare from the runway. Outside, they match the angle of the struts supporting the exterior canopy.
• These struts (which support identical canopies on opposite sides of the building) remind one of the wing struts on an old biplane.
• The strip of glass supporting the atrium walls at their base emphasizes the lightness of metal by separating it from the ground.

Special Challenges

• Providing thematic consistency with two disparate parts: the large, pre-engineered hangar and the two-story office building.
• Finding the entrances in a sea of tarmac and agricultural crops.
• Keeping the offices quiet in a noisy setting.

Solution

• Organized for full access to aircraft ramp. Customer lobby/atrium with views of runway.
• By nature, pre-engineered buildings use light steel manufactured components. They are economical and uninspired. The solution is high-tech, like the aircraft served. Horizontal ribbed siding connects the disparate parts. Tilting steel and glass surfaces and curving penthouses break the Butler Building mold.
• The entrances are emphasized with raked, overhanging canopies and long compression struts. The west entry canopy furthers the aircraft imagery with a folded, stainless steel, wing-like form.
• The exterior skin is heavily insulated. Windows are dual pane, using laminated glass and different thicknesses. Two atriums serve as "sound locks" and bring daylight to interior offices.