South Bend-based Envel Facade casts letters for Obama center
When architects envision an iconic building, turning that vision into reality often requires a manufacturing partner willing to tackle problems without easy answers.
For South Bend-based Envel Facade, solving those complex challenges is at the heart of its business. One of the company’s most ambitious projects is also one of its most visible: the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Working with Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, Envel manufactured 39 massive concrete panels incorporating a quote by former President Barack Obama.
The excerpt from Obama’s March 7, 2015, speech that commemorated the Selma to Montgomery marches was formed using a proprietary concrete blend.
The panels represent a colossal accomplishment for Envel’s 30 employees. From project award to completion, the undertaking took four years. The Obama Presidential Center opened June 19.
“There was preliminary collaboration that had to do with what the product was capable of achieving from a structural standpoint in addition to the aesthetic goals,” said Craig Heaney, Envel president. “This was done in part prior to the project being awarded but much more significantly post award as we produced our manufacturing drawings and had structural calculations performed for the project.”
The process uncovered challenges Envel needed to solve before production could begin. The complexity was especially apparent inside the panels, where structural reinforcement had to be carefully engineered around the lettering and geometry.
“The internal structural reinforcement inside the panels is complex beyond imagination,” Heaney said. “There were many times I didn’t even think it could be accomplished.”
Envel used roughly 600,000 pounds of ultra high-performance concrete to create the panels, with individual panels weighing between 9,000 and 15,000 pounds. The company developed 50 unique molds, and panels required the assembly of their individual letters before casting.
Casting each panel took between five and seven days, making the casting process a yearlong undertaking. Envel then spent another 10 months completing post-casting finishing work at its South Bend facility.
Ultra high-performance concrete made the project possible, providing the strength and durability required for the enormous panels, while allowing the lettering to be reproduced with remarkable precision. But material alone could not solve the challenge. It took engineering, manufacturing expertise, and a team willing to keep working when the solution was not immediately apparent.
“I had a great team in the plant that didn’t give up and figured out ways to make it happen,” Heaney said.
Watching the finished message take physical form has made the years of difficult work particularly meaningful for Envel’s employees.
“It meant a lot from a design, engineering, and manufacturing perspective to be involved in something so complex and challenging during the production process,” Heaney said. “However, seeing the actual message displayed in the finished product is enormously rewarding to me and the entire team that accomplished this.”
North Carolina state Sen. Michael Garrett described his first experience seeing the Obama Presidential Center and its lettering. He visited the center Aug. 2.
“My Uber pulled up on the South Side, I stepped out onto the sidewalk, craned my neck back, and there it was, cut into the stone at the top of the building, his (Obama’s) words from Selma,” Garrett said. “I stood there in the sun while strangers walked past me on their way to lunch, and I could not read it through without my eyes flooding. I hadn’t spoken to a single person. I hadn’t seen a single artifact. I hadn’t even gotten in line, and the building had already taken something out of me.”
Envel’s combination of collaboration and technical expertise is central to its approach. Founded in 2016, the company works with architects, engineers and contractors to solve technical challenges during the design process rather than simply manufacturing components from completed drawings.
For Envel, the lettering project illustrates what can happen when architects and manufacturers work together to push the boundaries of what is possible.
The Obama Presidential Center lettering project serves as a powerful example of the capabilities of modern manufacturing in northern Indiana. The result is a South Bend-made contribution to a nationally significant building.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime project where your work has such a significant impact,” Heaney said. •
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