Recent Articles
Jill Winkler joins LEO A DALY to lead industrial work in Minneapolis
In her role as market sector leader, Winkler will oversee LEO A DALY’s client relationships and expand the Minneapolis studio’s industrial market capture. She will also support the team’s drive for design excellence and exceptional project delivery.
AIA Palm Beach honors two LEO A DALY projects
The Toby & Leon Cooperman Sinai Residences in Boca Raton received an award in the residential category and LEO A DALY’s West Palm Beach studio received an interiors award.
LEO A DALY signs MEP 2040 pledge, pushing forward sustainability goals
LEO A DALY has signed on to MEP 2040, a movement to radically reduce total carbon emissions associated with building systems through collective action. Signatories seek to achieve operational net zero in their projects by 2030 and net zero embodied carbon by 2040.
Danette Riddle joins LEO A DALY to lead strategy and growth
Danette Riddle will develop and lead LEO A DALY’s brand strategy and marketing, in collaboration with other firm leadership. She will play a key role in the firm’s ambitious near-term growth goals.
LEO A DALY experts share decarbonization strategies with Facilities Management Advisor
Leo A. Daly Company CEO Ed Benes and LEO A DALY embodied carbon subject matter expert Jake Zach were featured in Facilities Management Advisor, sharing strategies for reducing embodied carbon in buildings.
Florida/Caribbean Architect features Royal Caribbean Innovation Lab
LEO A DALY’s design uses dramatic massing and materiality to highlight the innovation happening within
Royal Caribbean’s Innovation Lab is featured in the summer 2018 issue of Florida/Caribbean Architect. The LEED Silver Certified project recently won an Award of Merit from AIA Palm Beach.
Excerpted from Florida/Caribbean Architect:
Royal Caribbean’s new Innovation Lab was designed around a first-of-its-kind, 3D simulation environment referred to as the CAVE (Computer Assisted Virtual Experience). This 20,000-square-foot addition to the company’s six-story headquarters building at the Port of Miami has set the stage for the next generation of cruise ship design. With its expressive shape, resilient skin and high-tech interior, the Innovation Lab creates the perfect environment for imagining and designing the cruise ships of the future.
In the CAVE, designers in Royal Caribbean’s New Build team use virtual reality to immerse themselves in 3D versions of the ships they design. Using projection equipment in the ceiling, floor and walls, they are able to create a panoramic digital simulation of new vessels. Wearing special headsets, as many as 10 team members can collaborate on a project at the same time.
The CAVE is housed in a three-story volume in the southwest corner of the addition. It is accessed via the second level, alongside collaborative workspaces, a lounge and a café area. The first floor is largely unfinished, and provides space for the construction and testing of full-size mock-ups of a ship’s interiors.
The addition’s exterior architecture is a celebration of the innovative design happening within. The curved edge of the building cantilevers over its 270-degree radius and circumscribes the CAVE within. Pure white concrete panels on the exterior were sandblasted to produce a delicate appearance, and aluminum fins were added to create a playful rhythm. The concrete skin also allows the lab to blend with the existing precast and concrete corporate headquarters, and it provides the building envelope with resilience against the port’s harsh, salty environment.
The 10,000- to 20,000-pound weight of the 20-foot-tall architectural panels required close coordination between the LEO A DALY, precast manufacturer STABIL, and contractor Turner Construction. The panels were made hollow on the inside to offset the weight of the cantilever and provide stability. Using design-build and lean construction methods, the project was successfully fast-tracked, going from schematic design to occupancy in 10 months. Without this level of collaboration, a similar project was projected to take up to two years to complete.
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