Featured Projects

PressLock Grille from Ohio Gratings Inc., (OGI) of Canton, OH, is featured on the recently completed Blackhawk/Halsted Parking Deck in Chicago, IL. According to the manufacturer, its product was specified for its ability to meet the architect’s demands for a lightweight, open product. Structural steel supports were added around the parking structure to allow for continuous panel alignment as the ramps of the parking deck changed levels. Smaller panels were used as part of a segmented arc at their north elevation to create a canopy that extends over the top of the parking deck.

When the doors swung open recently to the Mid-South's first residential "green house", visitors inside the remarkable home were sheltered by an energy-efficient roof provided by Memphis, TN-based Varco Pruden Buildings, a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. The TERRA house, which had its grand opening February 27, 2009, is applying for platinum level LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. If the certification is granted, it would be the first such residence in the state of Tennessee.

Overlooking Escambia Bay on Florida’s Gulf Coast, this waterfront home provides a dramatic example of the innovative use of metal in residential construction. Highlighting the palette of materials are Petersen corrugated aluminum panels. Approximately 3,500 sq. ft. of .032” aluminum 2.67” x 7/8” corrugated panels clad the residence along with 2,800 sq. ft. of .032” aluminum flush panels. The panels were finished with PAC-CLAD® KYNAR 500® coating in Champagne Metallic and Copper Penny Metallic. In addition, 1,000 sq. ft. of .032” aluminum flashing was utilized.

Nestled among the lush orchards of central Florida stands the pride of Jim Gearhart, owner of AAA American Storage in Groveland. His 87,000 sq. ft. multi-level self-storage operation boasts some of the latest innovations and equipment available today for safe, secure, and efficient material handling and storage. The facility includes a VRC material lift purchased from AME Vertical in Troy, MI, a long-time representative of Wildeck® products manufactured in Waukesha, WI.

Impartiality, fairness and equality are all part of the vocabulary used to describe the American justice system. Historically, most courthouses have been imposing structures designed to convey that message with enduring strength and dignity. The architecture of the new Bill Santucci Justice Center in Placer County, CA, speaks of the symbols associated with the justice system with a voice that reflects the modernity of our times. A key element of that language is Reynobond® ACM from Alcoa Architectural Products.

The 13,600 sq. ft. Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies serves as a tool for Oberlin College (OH) students to learn how nature works and how humans interact with it. The Center is composed entirely of materials selected for their ability to contribute to a green building – including STYROFOAM™ Brand Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) Insulation. Several years after its completion, the building continues to inspire a generation of architects committed to designing functional yet innovative buildings that combat rising utility costs, economic dependency on foreign oil, climate change, natural resource depletion and landfill issues.

Morin, a Kingspan Group Company, contributed its single element Standing Seam Series Panels fabricated from Galvalume® to the recently-completed St. Elizabeth Seton Gymnasium in Oakland, CA. The 10,400 square-foot gym doubles as a community room and was designed to complement the aesthetics of the neighboring church sanctuary.

Approximately 25,000 sq. ft. of RHEINZINK® 0.8mm/22 gauge Preweathered Flat-Lock Tiles and perforated panels were used as a key design element for the expansion of the Boston Children’s Museum. The $47 million expansion and renovation project was designed by Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc., Cambridge, MA. The design was conceived to augment the strong, simple mass of the existing warehouse structure while creating a new look for the museum. The design also takes full advantage of the dramatic waterfront site.

A woven metal mesh shading system from Cambridge Architectural exudes modern flair, while providing solar shading and ventilation for the Academic Instructional Center on the campus of Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. The 120,000-square-foot facility incorporates a number of green building elements, and the University has applied for its LEED certification. By employing streamlined and sustainable concepts like metal fabric shading, the Academic Instructional Center has been able to reduce energy usage and optimize building operations. Cambridge mesh contributes to the daylighting and views section of LEED by decreasing glare and improving quality of light.

At more than 513,000 square feet, the North Las Vegas facility is the second and largest Distribution Center operated by CDW and primarily serves customers throughout the western United States. Wildeck, Inc. was one of the primary suppliers of advanced material handling products and systems for both of CDW’s distribution centers. The Western Distribution Center is highly automated utilizing multi-level Wildeck® mezzanines and more than seven miles of roller conveyor belts to move product accurately and quickly to customers who don’t expect their shipment to be delayed.

The News & Advance, Lynchburg, VA recently concluded a two-year, $26 million expansion project based around the installation of a state-of-the-art, German-made color printing press. The modernization project brings the daily paper to the forefront of newspaper production technology, according to publisher Terry Jamerson. More than 18,000 sq. ft. of Metl-Span CF Architectural insulated wall panels were used to clad the five-story addition to the newspaper’s existing building. The majority of the 3” panels were installed horizontally with a 1” reveal. The panels were finished in Sandstone.

Home to The Dow Chemical Company headquarters, it is fitting that the city of Midland, Mich., is the site of the historic first exterior use of THERMAX™ (ci) Exterior Insulation. And the timing couldn’t be better, with the new ASHRAE prescriptive requirements for continuous insulation in most U.S. climate zones. The 131-room H Hotel has earned a reputation as the Midland area’s most complete meeting and conference facility. Major renovation plans coincided with new management and a Dow leadership decision to locate its H.H. Dow Leadership Academy within the hotel, conveniently situated in the heart of downtown Midland and near the corporate headquarters.

In the 1940s, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s post-war “organic architecture”, Alfred Browning Parker was at the forefront of Miami’s “modern is regional” design movement. Wright’s influence can be found in many of Parker’s designs, including the Temple Beth El in West Palm Beach, FL. Constructed in 1970, it blends Wright-inspired features with a several-stories-high, nautilus shell-shaped structure that forms the ceiling of the temple’s sanctuary. When the iconic roof form was damaged by hurricanes in 2004 and 2005, it was recovered with jobsite rollformed metal roofing from Englert Inc. of Perth Amboy, NJ.

Since its founding in 1984, Camdon Construction of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada has been an authorized builder of metal buildings by Robertson Building Systems. So naturally, when the company decided to build a new headquarters it turned to products and systems from Robertson. The new 6,681 sq. ft. office building was constructed with a 51’ x 131’ x 23’ Robertson metal building framing system and is clad with the company’s 26-gauge aluminum-zinc standing seam metal roofing and A-36 metal wall panels in a Sandstone color.

In Bluffton, SC, 8,000 sq. ft. of COOLR® roofing metal was the material of choice for a Coach Homes and Condominiums project in the Hampton Lakes development. COOLR is a product of Sheffield Metals, Sheffield, OH. The 24-gauge, 20”-wide roofing metal—featuring a Medium Bronze paint finish—was formed into 17”-wide panels with a 1”-high standing seam by 4M Metals of Hilton Head, SC. RoofCrafters of Savannah, GA, handled the installation. Estate Builders was the general contractor.

Cladding specialists James & Taylor have put the finishing touches to the new Hereford Learning Centre in Hereford, Herefordshire, England, with a stunning perforated aluminum (aluminium) façade that reflects the local community. The façade for the new building, the first phase of a learning village at the heart of the town’s College of Technology, depicts local scenes created by punching thousands of holes into bronze anodized bespoke aluminum panels. Architects Stubbs Rich designed the images, and they were computer generated by James & Taylor, who reproduced the design over the 229 perforated panels that make up the façade.

The first of a new generation of Child Development Centers (CDCs) has entered service at Fort Riley, KS where more than $1-billion dollars worth of construction is planned or underway in step with the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division returning from a ten-year station in Germany. The daycare/preschool facilities, based on a standard design, are representative of a broader initiative of design standards developed for various Army facilities. The identical 16,000-sq.-ft. childcare centers at Fort Riley were produced by a $11.25-million Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC). Metal building systems supplied to the Fort Riley projects by Butler Manufacturing Company.

When Suburban Bank and Trust (SBT), headquartered in Elmhurst, IL, bought a small building for a new branch location the primary challenge was to give it an identity more fitting with the SBT style. The structure was built in the 1970s and needed more than just a new face so the bank called on PPKS Architects, Glen Ellyn, IL for help. The design from PPKS features 1,400 square feet of Kalzip TF37/800R façade system made of 0.040 aluminum with a twin-triangular profile that creates an interesting exterior through an interplay of light and shade across its shape.

Taking a different approach is not new to Mosher, Dolan, Cataldo & Kelly Commercial, a leading Michigan contractor/developer based in Birmingham, near Detroit. Over the last two decades, the firm has made its mark in Southeast Michigan with innovative construction recognized for the finest materials, craftsmanship and attention to detail. When the firm’s partners were ready to try a different approach to steel stud construction on a new multi-use building in Birmingham’s Triangle District, Dow offered a simple solution: the THERMAX™ Total Wall System.

One of the requirements for this Hippocrates Health Institute facility was that the roofing product needed to meet Miami-Dade and Florida state approvals. The 22-sided “circular” structure, located in West Palm Beach, FL, has a conical roof configuration. DECRA Roofing Systems’ Villa Tile stone-coated steel roofing met those requirements, as the panel style of the product performs well in the high wind zone—while also offering outstanding aesthetics and long-life, low-maintenance advantages. Nearly 5,300 sq. ft. of the Venetian Gold colored roofing were used.