Facade - Economical Tensile "Fabric" Mesh Screening | Paul Snustead

Structurflex's scope of work was to engineer, fabricate, and install a permanent architectural facade screening system, called Tensile Mesh Facade (a.k.a. Textile Mesh Façade) on all four sides of a new parking structure.  This structure is to serve the existing center and a future high rise tower that is planned to be added to the top of this seven story parking structure. 

The Tensile Mesh used on this project is a metallic silver fabric mesh and looks like an expensive metal mesh. The cost of this innovative façade screening system is only a fraction of the cost of a metal mesh or perforated metal facade.   Even looking at a typical 25-year life cycle cost, Tensile Mesh Facades have a dramatic cost savings compared to traditional building screens.  The fabric mesh has a 10-year warranty and according to the manufacturer carries an 18 to 20-year life expectancy. 

The Ponce City Market Parking Garage utilized a double layer overlapping vertical bans of mesh that was secured onto the top and bottom of a horizontal cantilevered structural steel framework by a custom adjustable aluminum extrusion to tension the mesh. This façade treatment transforms the typical ugly parking structures you see across the country and makes it an affordable, very attractive system that will last for decades