Towell’s mission was to temporarily serve the comprehensive functions of UCLA’s Powell Library while a five-year seismic retrofit operation was underway. With a playful homage to the school colors blue and gold, the Temporary Powell (nicknamed Towell) was woven into the architectural fabric of its campus surroundings.
Lightweight with a skeleton akin to that of an aircraft, Towell’s aluminum ribs were covered with a stretched fiberglass membrane that was anchored with laced cables. The cavernous space inside this 36,000 sf building was crisscrossed by angled struts with muted lighting admitted through the pressed fiberglass panels. Acoustical balance, climate control and physical movement were successfully solved without compromising fundamental campus priorities, and the building was completed in a nine-month period. This project marked the first application of a tensile fabric structure on the UCLA campus.
Towell’s mission was to temporarily serve the comprehensive functions of UCLA’s Powell Library while a five-year seismic retrofit operation was underway. With a playful homage to the school colors blue and gold, the Temporary Powell (nicknamed Towell) was woven into the architectural fabric of its campus surroundings.
Lightweight with a skeleton akin to that of an aircraft, Towell’s aluminum ribs were covered with a stretched fiberglass membrane that was anchored with laced cables. The cavernous space inside this 36,000 sf building was crisscrossed by angled struts with muted lighting admitted through the pressed fiberglass panels. Acoustical balance, climate control and physical movement were successfully solved without compromising fundamental campus priorities, and the building was completed in a nine-month period. This project marked the first application of a tensile fabric structure on the UCLA campus.
Towell’s mission was to temporarily serve the comprehensive functions of UCLA’s Powell Library while a five-year seismic retrofit operation was underway. With a playful homage to the school colors blue and gold, the Temporary Powell (nicknamed Towell) was woven into the architectural fabric of its campus surroundings.
Lightweight with a skeleton akin to that of an aircraft, Towell’s aluminum ribs were covered with a stretched fiberglass membrane that was anchored with laced cables. The cavernous space inside this 36,000 sf building was crisscrossed by angled struts with muted lighting admitted through the pressed fiberglass panels. Acoustical balance, climate control and physical movement were successfully solved without compromising fundamental campus priorities, and the building was completed in a nine-month period. This project marked the first application of a tensile fabric structure on the UCLA campus.
Towell’s mission was to temporarily serve the comprehensive functions of UCLA’s Powell Library while a five-year seismic retrofit operation was underway. With a playful homage to the school colors blue and gold, the Temporary Powell (nicknamed Towell) was woven into the architectural fabric of its campus surroundings.
Lightweight with a skeleton akin to that of an aircraft, Towell’s aluminum ribs were covered with a stretched fiberglass membrane that was anchored with laced cables. The cavernous space inside this 36,000 sf building was crisscrossed by angled struts with muted lighting admitted through the pressed fiberglass panels. Acoustical balance, climate control and physical movement were successfully solved without compromising fundamental campus priorities, and the building was completed in a nine-month period. This project marked the first application of a tensile fabric structure on the UCLA campus.
