MCA’s 2014 Chairman Awards Institutional Award Winner:
Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral in Port Canaveral, Florida
With its shimmering, iridescent exterior, Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral beckons visitors with its unique appearance as its color changes in different light and at different angle. Opened in November 2013, the Port’s iconic welcome center showcases the first use of Valspar’s new Kameleon™ Color mica coating as spray-applied to Firestone Metal Products’ UNA-CLAD™ metal wall panels by Linetec, one the nation’s largest finishers of architectural aluminum.
An integral part of Florida’s Space Coast and Canaveral Cove’s revitalization, Exploration Tower is owned by Canaveral Port Authority. Its opening coincides with the Port’s 60th anniversary of its establishment and the 500th anniversary of Ponce de Leon’s landing on Florida’s east coast.
Taking its cues from the shapes and hues of the port, GWWO Inc./Architects designed the $23 million, seven-story, sail-shaped structure to express the common characteristics of “transience, function and imagery.” The building’s southern elevation soars from the water to the sky. It narrows in scale and reduces its exterior coverage until only the steel frame remains to outline the curvature and comes together at a peak 60-feet above the main roof level.
The building’s dynamic form and features – sun louvers, exposed structure and iridescent skin — contribute to a constant sense of movement as the sun plays across the structure, meet functional needs, and evoke imagery of the Port and [Brevard] County. A rocket ready to launch, a surfboard in the sand, a ship’s hull, a rocket contrail; all can be seen in the structure’s striking presence.
The MCA members involved with the project was Firestone Metal Products and Valspar and the project featured UNA-CLAD Aluminum flat MCM wall panels. The architect was GWWO, Inc. The contractor was Skanska USA and the metal installer was KENPAT USA, LLC. Firestone Metal Products was the manufacturer, Linetec was the metal finisher using a Valspar coating.
More information on the MCA’s 2014 Chairman Awards
