In the heart of downtown Kalamazoo, Mich., is the newly constructed Kalamazoo Justice Center, which will bring together the county prosecutor’s office, circuit and district courtrooms, jury assembly rooms and the court clerk’s office. The $95 million project spans 165,000 square feet and is located next to the Kalamazoo County Administration Building on Kalamazoo Avenue.

The building features a large glass expanse on the south side of the building, a curtainwall that will provide optimum levels of daylight for the interior spaces. That same south-facing side of the building also includes a ground-floor pre-screening lobby. For the fascia of the one-story lobby space, the architects needed a product that visually extended the aesthetic of the modern glass curtainwall.

Aiming for Aesthetic Appeal

TowerPinkster was responsible for specifying finishes on the job in collaboration with the world-renowned architectural firm HOK.

“We needed a decorative product for the fascia on the one-story lobby that had the same look and feel as the glass curtainwall,” says Jennifer Swan, senior architectural project coordinator at TowerPinkster. “However, we didn’t want the fascia to feel like a framed curtainwall with hardware on the top, bottom and sides. The panels used were perfect since it is an insulated glass panel rainscreen system without visible hardware. It got us the exact look we wanted, and we were able to pick the color behind the glass to better match the building.”

The panels feature a super-resilient substrate to which back-painted and tempered glass panels are permanently bonded. Therefore, color will not wear, scratch, fade, or incur water damage, and designers can choose from 63 standard colors or custom colors if needed.