Address: 10975 SW 17th Street, Miami, FL 33199
Work: KENPAT installed the exterior for the Living Core building of the amazing new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum in Miami, Florida. The façade is a one-of-a-kind doubly curving mortar bed and ceramic tile vented cavity structure. The finished tile surface is organized into a linear parallelogram pattern, with a 3/16-inch tolerance, superimposed on the continu¬ally changing complex curved substructure.
GC: SKANSKA USA
Architect: Grimshaw Architects
Dates: December 2016 — March 2017
Awards:
• 2017 AWCI National Excellence in
Construction Quality Award
• 2017 ABC National Eagle Award
• 2017 Engineering News Record Best of the Best
Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science
Situation
Inspired by a $35 million donation from Phillip and Patricia Frost, the museum’s design centered around an iconic, cone-shaped aquarium building. Given the ambitious scope, including a façade capable of withstanding Miami’s hurricane conditions, SKANSKA USA contracted KENPAT for its expertise in delivering innovative, high-performance solutions.
Task
KENPAT was contracted by SKANSKA to perform the engineering, modeling, fabrication, and installation of the exterior skin for the aquarium building at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum in Miami, Fla.
One of the first tasks was to ensure that the building's outer wall could withstand hurricane-force weather. KENPAT obtained a One-Time NOA (Notice of Acceptance) from Miami-Dade County, which required rigorous testing for impact, water, and air infiltration. This process showcased KENPAT’s ability to deliver complex, high-performance solutions. The certification proved its worth when the wall withstood Hurricane Irma’s Category 4-5 forces without damage.
Action
The building's concrete frame was modeled using detailed 3D scans, stitched together to match the designed surface with the as-built conditions. The team used an interactive parametric model to meet the 3/16-inch tolerance for the linear pattern on the curved surface, studying it in real time.
Each adjustment of the linear parallelogram surface required a new iteration to ensure precise pattern connections around the building. These adjustments led to iterative refinements in framing engineering and design. After extensive collaboration, the final parametric model aligned with the design intent and as-built conditions was approved by the design team.
The façade assembly is attached to the top floor's slab edge, making the exterior wall hang like a curtain. The framing had to match the building's shape precisely—25 percent of the surface has double curvature, while the rest combines single curvature, slopes, and straight sections. Data from the 3D model was used for fabricating the light-gauge framing.
After framing, the KENPAT team moved to sheathing and rigid insulation. They wrapped the building in two layers of DensGlass® Sheathing over the frame. Non-combustible mineral wool insulation was attached with stand-off clips, preventing direct attachment to the outer skin. A waterproofing membrane was applied, followed by vertical and discontinuous horizontal hat channels to create a ventilated cavity. A 20-gauge G-90 galvanized steel sheet was then installed before adding the final surface layers.
KENPAT then added more than 525 parallelogram tile fields in a rising, angular pattern over the finished sub-surface. The linear parallelogram pattern superimposed on the compound curved façade resulted in a high level of complexity. Each full parallelogram contained exactly 861 tiles, regardless of the shape of the skin it covered. This process required precise placement of the aluminum parallelogram framing members around the building.
KENPAT installed 4 1/4-inch stainless steel bases and trim with laser-cut ventilation slots at the wall's bottom. The top structure featured a custom aluminum parapet cap, designed to endure Category 5 hurricane winds.
Result
Since its opening, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science has become a landmark cultural institution. The aquarium facility’s exterior, engineered to withstand Category 5 hurricane conditions, remained undamaged during Hurricane Irma. The project has earned prestigious awards, including ENR Southeast’s 2017 Best Project in the Cultural category and the ABC National Eagle Award, underscoring KENPAT’s innovative contributions to architectural excellence.
