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What building is the facade part of?
The facade belongs to the rear exterior of the museum’s new three-story addition in Astoria, Queens. It was not a standalone recladding project: the work formed part of a larger expansion and renovation designed by Leeser Architecture, with architect Thomas Leeser identified in the Museum’s official history.
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Construction began in 2008, and the transformed museum opened to the public on January 15, 2011. Owens Corning’s 2019 project feature describes the undertaking as a three-year, $67 million expansion. The completed facility grew from 50,000 square feet to 97,700 square feet, and the building achieved LEED Silver certification.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsNew York City’s opening announcement described the addition as a three-story volume clad in very pale-blue aluminum panels. That description captures the facade’s public presence, while the contractor’s project record supplies the more exact information about panel thickness, quantity, finishes and installation geometry.
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Project facts at a glance
| Item | Documented fact |
|---|---|
| Project | Expansion and renovation of the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens |
| Architect | Leeser Architecture; the Museum identifies Thomas Leeser as architect |
| Construction and opening | Work began in 2008; the expanded museum opened January 15, 2011 |
| Expansion cost and duration | $67 million over three years, as reported by Owens Corning in 2019 |
| Facility size | 50,000 square feet before the project and 97,700 square feet afterward |
| Visible cladding | Approximately 15,000 square feet of custom triangular aluminum panels |
| Panel count and thickness | 1,067 panels made from .190-inch aluminum plate |
| Joint and reveal arrangement | Open joints with a three-inch-deep reveal system |
| Listed finishes | High-gloss Light Blue or Satin Nickel Coraflon |
| Insulation | Thermafiber RainBarrier 45 mineral wool in an open-joint exterior facade application |
| Certification | LEED Silver for the building |
What the visible skin is made of
Custom aluminum triangles
MG McGrath’s project page says the exterior scope covered roughly 15,000 square feet of .190-inch aluminum plate formed into triangular wall panels. Owens Corning’s project article gives the total as 1,067 panels. Together, those figures describe a large field of individually fabricated pieces rather than a standardized curtain-wall module.
The triangular format turns the facade into a geometric pattern whose appearance depends on every adjacent panel. The project page says each triangle had to be fabricated to precise geometry. That requirement is central to the visual effect: when the pieces were attached to the support structure, their alignment produced what MG McGrath calls a seamless, floating appearance.
The contractor’s wording is a company description, not a quotation from a named designer or an independent performance test. It nevertheless identifies the practical fabrication issue that a repeating triangular system creates: small dimensional errors become visible across many meeting edges.
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Open joints and deep reveals
The panels were mounted with open joints and a three-inch-deep reveal system. An open-joint rainscreen leaves intentional gaps between cladding pieces rather than sealing the face into one continuous sheet. In this project, the joints and recessed reveals are part of the visual composition as well as the drainage and ventilation strategy normally associated with a rainscreen assembly.
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The available project descriptions do not specify the individual fasteners, subframing profiles, membrane brand or joint-width measurements. It is therefore more accurate to describe the documented support structure and reveal depth than to infer a particular attachment hardware package.
Why the panels look as if they float
The floating effect comes from the interaction of three documented choices:
- Repeated triangular geometry: 1,067 accurately fabricated triangles create a continuous field whose edges line up across the elevation.
- Recessed three-inch reveals: the deep shadow lines separate the panels from one another and visually pull the joints behind the face of the cladding.
- Open joints over a support structure: the panels read as discrete elements rather than a single flat aluminum sheet.
MG McGrath states that precise fabrication was necessary so the triangles would achieve a seamless floating appearance after installation. The statement explains the coordination burden without claiming that the facade literally has no visible supports or that the panels are structurally suspended without attachment.
Color, gloss and reflections
MG McGrath lists two high-gloss Coraflon finishes: Light Blue and Satin Nickel. New York City characterized the addition as very pale blue, which is consistent with the Light Blue description. The contractor’s listing of Satin Nickel means the source material should not be simplified into a claim that every panel had one identical color.
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The contractor describes the finished surface as highly reflective. Its account says the cladding blends with the sky and picks up reflections of clouds. That is an appearance description rather than a measured reflectance value, glare study or energy-performance result. The changing sky reflection is what keeps the rear elevation from reading as a static blue wall: its tone can shift with weather, daylight and viewing angle.
What sits behind the aluminum
Mineral-wool insulation
Behind the visible panels, the project article identifies Thermafiber RainBarrier 45 mineral wool insulation in an open-joint exterior facade application. Owens Corning describes the specified insulation as providing continuous insulation along with thermal, moisture-resistance and fire-safety functions.
In a rainscreen wall, the cladding is the outer layer while the insulation and wall behind it form the environmental-control portion of the assembly. The documented sources do not publish a complete wall section, thermal transmittance value, cavity dimension or fire-test assembly for this building, so those performance figures should not be inferred from the product name alone.
Recycled content and LEED claims
Owens Corning reports that RainBarrier 45 had a minimum of 70 percent recycled content and contributed to 13 LEED credit categories. Those are manufacturer claims about the product’s potential contribution to a rating system; they do not mean the insulation alone earned 13 credits. The building’s reported outcome was LEED Silver, a certification for the project as a whole.
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No measured energy-savings figure, post-occupancy evaluation or operational performance study appears in the available project coverage. The insulation’s stated functions should therefore be understood as specified design roles, not as a published utility-data result.
How the facade was produced and assembled
The documented sequence can be understood as a coordinated fabrication-and-installation process, even though the sources do not publish a shop-drawing set or field method statement.
- Early planning: MG McGrath says it became involved during the early planning phase and was contracted to provide the exterior facade of the new addition.
- Geometric development: the triangular layout had to be resolved so 1,067 individual pieces could meet consistently across the elevation.
- Panel fabrication: the contractor produced .190-inch aluminum plate panels and applied the listed high-gloss Light Blue or Satin Nickel Coraflon finish.
- Support preparation: the panels were intended to mount to a support structure incorporating open joints and three-inch-deep reveals.
- Field installation: each triangle was attached to the support structure. MG McGrath identifies precise geometry at this stage as essential to the seamless floating appearance.
- Insulated rainscreen assembly: Thermafiber RainBarrier 45 mineral wool formed the documented insulation layer behind the open-joint exterior facade.
This sequence separates what is known from what is not. The sources establish the materials, panel count, reveal depth and need for geometric accuracy, but they do not identify a proprietary fastening pattern, installation tolerance in millimeters, or a weather-testing result.
Visible cladding versus concealed insulation
| Layer | Documented material or feature | Role described in project coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Outer skin | .190-inch aluminum triangular panels, approximately 15,000 square feet and 1,067 pieces | Creates the patterned, reflective exterior appearance |
| Joints and depth | Open joints with three-inch-deep reveals | Separates panels visually and forms part of the open-joint rainscreen arrangement |
| Finish | High-gloss Light Blue or Satin Nickel Coraflon | Provides the reflective surface that can blend with the sky and reflect clouds |
| Insulation layer | Thermafiber RainBarrier 45 mineral wool | Specified for continuous insulation, thermal and moisture resistance, and fire-safety characteristics |
Why fabrication tolerance mattered
A triangular panel field has no long, forgiving horizontal bands. Every point, diagonal and joint participates in the overall pattern. If one triangle is out of proportion or shifted, the error can propagate into neighboring pieces and interrupt the apparent continuity of the surface.
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That is why MG McGrath emphasizes precise geometry rather than simply naming the aluminum thickness. The .190-inch plate establishes the material specification, but the visual success depended on converting that material into repeatable triangles and placing those triangles accurately on the support structure. The contractor’s “seamless” description refers to the appearance of the completed facade; the open joints remain an intentional part of the assembly.
How the addition changed the museum
The facade is one visible consequence of a much larger institutional project. The expansion nearly doubled the museum’s area, from 50,000 to 97,700 square feet, while renovating existing space as well as adding the three-story volume. Those area figures describe the overall facility, not the panelized rear elevation.
Likewise, the $67 million budget and three-year duration apply to the expansion and renovation reported by Owens Corning, not to the aluminum package alone. Keeping those scopes separate prevents the facade quantity—about 15,000 square feet—from being mistaken for the size of the entire building or the cost of the cladding work.
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What is established—and what remains undocumented
- The rear addition’s cladding is a custom aluminum rainscreen with triangular panels, open joints and three-inch reveals.
- MG McGrath fabricated and installed the facade and identifies .190-inch plate, the two listed finishes and the precision needed for the floating appearance.
- Thermafiber RainBarrier 45 mineral wool was specified behind the panels for the documented insulation, moisture and fire-related functions.
- The expanded museum opened in 2011, grew to 97,700 square feet and achieved LEED Silver.
- The available project coverage does not provide measured operational energy savings, post-occupancy results, a complete wall-section drawing, independent facade testing or current product-availability information.
Those limits matter when interpreting the project. The facade can be discussed confidently as a carefully fabricated geometric rainscreen and as part of a LEED Silver expansion. It should not be presented as proof of a particular energy reduction, a universal rainscreen specification or a currently available product package without newer documentation.
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