The designers of the Hofbrauhaus-Chicago brewery wanted to hide that new building's rooftop equipment. They also wanted an overall aesthetic for the project that closely matched that of the well-known Royal Brewery in Munich, Germany. Thanks to rooftop equipment screening from RoofScreen Manufacturing, they were able to meet those objectives and more.
More than aesthetics alone, function, flexibility, a track record of performance and engineering support services all contributed to RoofScreen's involvement in the project.
RoofScreen designs, manufactures and distributes pre-engineered modular rooftop framing systems designed to be used as architectural roofline embellishments, and as equipment screens on commercial and industrial buildings. In this case, the Hofbrauhaus-Chicago, because it houses a brewery and restaurant, with plenty of rooftop equipment, RoofScreen was able to meet both needs.
“It’s located in a high visibility site, right off the 294 Expressway and there are buildings around,” says Mark Fruth, now a senior architect at Antunovich Associates in Chicago. (When this project was completed, Fruth was with VRA Architects of Chicago.) “We wanted to present a mansard like the older style building of the Hofbrauhaus in Munich. That building is more than 400 years old.”
Achieving that desired architecture without spending a great deal of time on it is an upside to the RoofScreen approach. Screen design–everything from the look to the way it mounts–is the company's business. It has been for years and design assistance comes at no charge.
The RoofScreen framing system can be easily tilted back or angled in such a way that it gives the appearance of a mansard. The system is adjustable to meet aesthetic desires as well as engineering requirements. In fact, installed at an angle for this project, the windload requirements were not as great as they would have been with a screen that was installed at a 90-degree angle.
The materials used at Hofbrauhaus-Chicago made for a unique and attractive installation. After RoofScreen’s watertight framing system was installed at the edge of most of the building, painted marine plywood was attached to serve as a solid substrate for a metal roofing material known as Met-Tile.
Met-Tile, a product line now owned and manufactured by McElroy Metal, is a 26-gauge panelized metal roofing system designed to replicate the look of clay tile roofing. The bright red color matches the decorative standing seam metal roofing at the entrance and catches the eye of passersby in this bustling area.
The roofing panels were installed at different lengths to conform to the architecturally varying wall heights of the building. The RoofScreen framing system, flexible in its design capabilities, easily allowed for those heights, varying from eight to 12 feet.
Of course, no matter how good it looks, the system still has to be watertight.
RoofScreen offers a patented engineered and leak-proof roof attachment system to ensure the integrity of the roofing system. It starts with a 6x6-inch steel base support, available in a variety of lengths to accommodate any insulation thickness. The support is attached with bolts or lag screws to the roof structure through the interior of the base support. Specially fitted flashing boots are then installed and roofed in by a qualified roofing contractor. After roofing is completed, a self-adhesive EPDM gasket strip is applied around the top of the flashing, which provides added protection from snow, ice and splashing water. The final step is to install the Base Cap Assembly, which counter-flashes 2.4 inches over the flashing and creates a seal by compressing the gasket. This watertight structural mounting point is ideal for mechanical equipment screens, equipment platforms and solar panel racking systems.
“There were a fair amount of penetrations in the roof,” Fruth says. “It was never a concern because the RoofScreen system works. There hasn’t been any problems.”
To learn more about Met-Tile tile-facsimile metal roofing from McElroy Metal, visit www.mcelroymetal.com.