Harmon Inc. Completes Work on MICA's Brown Center

The Maryland Institute College of Art's (MICA) Brown Center in Baltimore opened last October, sheathed in translucent, white glass that was installed by Harmon Inc. Harmon's Baltimore team designed, manufactured and installed the $20 million building's exterior glazing system. Whiting-Turner Construction Co. served as the general contractor. Architect Charles Brickbauer designed the building in collaboration with the firm Ziger/Snead.

The five-story structure is 61,410 square feet. It also includes a 60-foot high atrium at its entrance. Harmon says the building rises from a "parallelogram-shaped footprint that had previously served as a parking lot."
Harmon and Whiting-Turner worked together to provide design assistance on the project.

"Due to the intricate relationships of the glass façade and the building structure, it was obvious that the structure and the wall system had to be co-developed in order to maintain the integrity of the design," said John Myers, Harmon's senior sales representative in Baltimore.

Harmon's engineering manager Joe Digiacinto developed the wall system in three-dimensional CAD drawings, establishing critical connection locations for the structure. Harmon then provided and installed the entire exterior curtainwall, atrium steel trusses, all-glass entrances and structural glass railings. Harmon says that as a result no metal supports are visible on the center's exterior.

The center's exposed concrete structure supports a four-sided silicone-glazed curtainwall system. The glass also features a white frit pattern.