When Oil Canning Is a Good Thing


As a young man, now internationally famous architect, Frank Gehry, was walking down the street in Chicago and came upon the Inland Steel Building designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM).  He thought, now that is a well designed building.  As he approached the structure, he noticed some oil canning in the sparkling, stainless cladding.  Normally such warpage in a sheet of steel is considered undesirable in construction or in equipment.  But Gehry liked the effect of the defect. “It added character,” he said.

 Inland Steel Building, Chicago, IL, 1957

Those familiar with the signature style of his architecture will instantly recognize that the oil canning was the inspiration for some of his best know works (shown below).

Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN, 1993

In this design, Gehry specified a lighter, 22 gauge cladding to increase the likelihood of oilcanning and denting.

Experience Music Project, Seattle, WA, 2000

Multi-colored, metalcladding achieves an oil-on-water effect.

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, 1997

An artisan in Spain made a mock-up of titanium shingles for Gehry’s now famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.  The mock-up was perfect with absolutely no creasing.  When Gehry got out of his car, he said he hated it because it was so smooth with no wrinkles.  (To this day the artisan probably doesn’t understand what he did wrong.)

 Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA 2003

Some highly polished, mirror-like panels had to be lightly sanded because they acted like a parabolic mirror to create 140 degree hot spots on adjacent sidewalks and skyrocketing air-conditioning costs for nearby condominiums.

Common to all these structures is metal cladding—sometimes stainless, sometimes aluminum, and sometimes titanium—creating billowy, curvilinear, free-form outlines.

Recently I had the opportunity to hear Gehry speak at the Inland Steel Building.  (He’s now a part owner.)  After his talk, I asked him if he was joking when he said he was trying “to emulate Mies van der Rohe” in his design for the music pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

Mies van der Rohe and a Model of his Crown Hall, Chicago, IL, 1956

Mies, a master pioneer of modern architecture, taught in Chicago where we find many of his best know works.  His signature style is a “less-is-more,” steel and glass, “bare-bones,” ornament-free architecture.

Gehry responded that in honor of Mies he had designed a very clean, simple arch above the proscenium but was overridden by the philanthropist sponsoring the pavilion:  Penny Pritzker told him to “Gehry it up!”

Frank Gehry at the Inland Steel Building

So . . . Gehry designed the curvilinear elements that soar 120 feet above the stage alternately described as sails, a massive metal headdress, a bow of curled ribbons on a gift box, and a flashy silver lion with an unruly mane.

Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago, IL 2004

All of this was especially meaningful to me because my grandfather formed the steel mullions (the vertical strips between the windows) of the Inland Steel Building.  These narrow sections do not have any perceptible warpage; the oil canning appears on the larger panels.

Mullions Formed by Chicago Metal for the Inland Steel Building

More recently the third and fourth generations of the Chicago Metal family curved 570 tons of 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 inch outside-diameter pipe to form the Pritzker Pavilion trellis to support speakers without obstructing anyone’s view and to create a “room” for as many as 11,000 concert goers.

Pritzker Pavilion Trellis

Chicago Metal bent this pipe to a curvature within 1/8 inch tolerance over 20 ft. Unlike the imperfections desired with cladding, this pipe was to be formed with no distortion or even scratches to snag a fingernail.  Through design involvement with SOM and Gehry’s firm, we helped reduce the cost of the trellis without compromising quality.

Most recently, Chicago Metal curved beams for an addition to Gehry’s Weisman Art Museum.

Model of Addition to the Weisman Art Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, 2011

Beams Curved by Chicago Metal Rolled Products

Each beam bent for the Weisman Art Museum had different dimensions:  no two were alike. Furthermore, many individual beams were curved to multiple radii with stringent tolerances–not really surprising for a Gehry design

I felt it an honor to discuss all these relationships with Frank Gehry when I met him at the Inland Steel Building.  And I’d welcome the opportunity to discuss with you how we might save you time and money on your projects also.

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