Ybor City's stackDesign Creates Details To Enhance Architecture

Constantin Brancusi once said that architecture is inhabited sculpture. There is a company in Tampa that seems to have taken this concept to heart.

Based in Ybor City, stackDesign Inc. doesn't build buildings. It designs and fabricates the details that give the building personality and style. It is responsible for the 20-foot door pulls at Tampa Covenant Church, the custom frame that encases the public art at Tampa's Riverwalk, those steel-tree looking sculptures that conceal support columns at Boizao Brazilian Steakhouse and  most recently, the architectural elements that greet visitors to the Chilhuly exhibit at the Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg.

stackDesigns designed the panels that greet visitors both outside and in the main entrance of the exhibit. A 900-pound steel door pivots to allow visitors into the exhibit, also designed by stackDesign.

"The Chilhuly project was a collaboration with Alfonso Architects," says Harry Parker, sales director for stackDesign. "The implementation of raw steel as a finished surface is generally unusual, but is a modern aesthetic both we and the architect embrace. The pivot door is truly an engineering success, and marks the start of the tour of the exhibit -- 900 pounds effortlessly pivoting on two points.

"The uniqueness of the raw steel is in the natural bluing that occurs during its forming," continues Parker. "The steel is termed 'hot rolled carbon steel,' with the variations in colors from one panel, each unique as a fingerprint, occurring as the steel rolls off the coil and cools. This material is nearly always finished, as we did on the exterior sign, which we powder coating to resist rust. But in a climate controlled environment and properly treated, it will maintain its original, organic form. To modernists like ourselves, it's the baby."

Writer: Missy Kavanaugh
Source: Harry Parker, stackDesign, Inc.