Midwest Commercial Interiors

The Proposed Midwest Commercial Interiors building is a retail, office and warehouse facility. The building is a tilt-up concrete structure. In the retail areas, instead of the conventional solid tilt-up wall panels, the wall panels have irregular shaped openings. The remaining concrete in the panels, between the openings creates an impression of organic branches. The inspiration for this design comes from the TOD's six-story cast-in-place concrete retail building located in Japan and designed by Toyo Ito. The design was inspired by the zelkova trees. The same pattern is then repeated in the surrounding solid tilt-up wall panels as reveals. There was a concern of birds nesting in the facade of the building as well as the cost of irregular shaped glazing, so a glass curtain wall extends 4 to 6-feet (or more) beyond the artistic wall panels. This allows people to walk through and around the panels. It also makes it easier to clean glass and to provide window displays.

The panels will be load bearing, supporting the roof and will also be used to resist the lateral wind and seismic forces for both in-plane and out-of-plane loads.