Terracotta 1912 to 2018

Center Three is a 100-year-old, one million square-foot building in Long Island City, New York that was constructed over the course of one year. It was built with concrete frame construction and clad with hand-set, glazed terracotta blocks and large wood-frame windows. The building was erected for the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company and was known as both the Sunshine Biscuit Factory and The Thousand Window Bakery. It remained a bakery until 1965 when the plant relocated to New Jersey. Between the mid 60’s and mid 90’s the building was used for storage, back office needs, and an emerging local Community College. In the 1990’s the building was purchased by the state of New York and the primary tenant became LaGuardia Community College.

Years of neglect, patching, inadequate and sometimes damaging repairs contributed to exterior wall failures including chunks of terracotta falling from the building. A sidewalk shed to protect pedestrians from falling objects surrounded the building for over a decade while potential solutions were considered. Tear the building down? Replace the facade? If so, with what material? Replacing the entire building was not an option since there was no swing space, nor was there a budget for a new million square foot building.

The decision to select unitized terracotta curtainwall emerged as a response to the unique conditions of the building. The goal was to design a new envelope that respected the long history of terracotta use on the facade, but to employ terracotta using contemporary technology represented by a unitized curtainwall system. The appearance, logistical and detail challenges that arose were significant. Today, standardized panel sizes are mounted to the face of the concrete structure. Installation has been done by crane and monorail with six phases of construction over a 2.5-year period. Over fifty unique glazed terracotta extrusions are integrated with aluminum sunshades and ceramic-fritted insulated glazing to create a high performance sustainable facade that should last another 100 years.