Laversab

Located in Sugar Land, Texas, Laversab’s new 25,166-square-foot corporate office and manufacturing facility is designed to reflect the company’s ongoing pursuit to be the world leader as a supplier of industrial computers servicing the government, aviation and oil field industries.

The architect was challenged to create a design that would mediate between the high tech nature of Laversab’s company and the low tech construction type of the normal office/warehouse buildings found in the industrial park. Tilt-Up construction was incorporated because of its cost-efficiency, timeliness and flexibility.

The overriding compositional strategy is revealed in a concrete screen wall with the internal building programs attached behind it. Rather than fully masking the building from the street, the screen wall is affected by the functions behind it: The vertical fins with horizontal reveals continue through the main corridor of the office space entrance. In addition, a curtain wall with an aluminum sunshade slips through the screen at the building’s public areas and an abstract set of apertures, punched into the horizontal reveal pattern, indicate the kinetic character of the manufacturing spaces. Adjusting to the contour of the street frontage, the slight curve in the screen wall allows the building to seat itself into the site.