In March 2014 the new Health, Fitness and Recreation Center on the Moraine Valley Community College campus opened its doors. The 113,000 square foot facility brings exciting programs, services and opportunity for each and every member. Increased enrollment paired with the large number of health conscious students and faculty members necessitated the construction.
The glass art facade of this new facility was created using Goldray's Digital Ceramic Printing process. The colorful mural depicting athletes in motion helps to tell the story of the purpose of this state of the art rec center at Moraine Valley College.
Our challenge was to bring life to the architect’s vision of a design that could be viewed from the exterior, without obscuring the visibility when looking out from inside the fitness center.
Digital Ceramic Printing is a technology that applies ceramic ink directly onto glass in much the same way that an inkjet printer prints onto paper. This solution allows the designer to create multicolor or photographic quality images for either monolithic or laminated installations.
The number of images and multitude of colors in this design led Domenica Kemper Architects to choose the direct-to-glass digital printing process. The DipTech digital printing machine was used to create the image panels which were then insulated with a Solarban60 interior lite for additional solar control.
The challenge with this project was the architect’s vision of a design that could be viewed from the exterior, without obscuring the visibility when looking out from inside the fitness center. Goldray was able to provide a solution to this quandary by proposing a very specific dot pattern be used when printing. This arrangement of dots allows clear vision from the inside of the building, yet providing a uniform mural like display on the outside. Patrons using the facilities in the morning are privy to a most spectacular view of the sun rising up over the image of the swimmer.
