The owners of SkyVenture New Hampshire, a vertical wind tunnel skydiving simulator, wanted their new building “to scream excitement.” The design of the 8-story, 160 mph re-circulating wind tunnel facility located in Nashua, NH certainly met the goal!

The design/build project utilized 15,000 sq. ft. of Metl-Span CF-42 Light Mesa 2” insulated foam panels finished in Cool Metallic Silver.

The New Hampshire facility represents the third prototype for SkyVenture International, which is patented in 25 countries around the world. The company currently has nine operational tunnels in the U.S. and abroad with six more scheduled to open in 2007.

“The success of the New Hampshire project is causing the parent company to reconsider future designs,” according to Mike Cheever, vice president of design and construction, Stenbak Design Associates, Inc., Londonderry, NH. Stenbak was the general contractor on the project. “We build everything we design,” says Cheever. “We’ve used Metl-Span on previous high tech buildings and knew it was perfect for this job. It gave us the contemporary, sleek, almost spaceship-like look we wanted. And it’s significantly less expensive than other material generally considered to be ‘high tech.’ Architecturally, we liked it because of the smooth surface with no exposed fasteners.”

Installation of the Metl-Span panels was done by Brookside Company, Stow, MA. “We used Metl-Span on the soffits, too,” according to project manager Brian Hoey. “The only real challenge was working with the long panels and cutting the corners to fit the sloping angle design of the walls. It’s an easy material to work with.”