Designers of the new College of Medicine building at Florida State University in Tallahassee used a giant Petersen mansard roof to provide both form and function for the facility. Surrounding campus buildings were characterized by steeply pitched clay tiles roofs or flat roofs with highly ornamented parapets.

More than 32,000 sq. ft. of unpainted 16 oz. copper Snap-Clad panels and 10,000 sq. ft. of copper flat stock was used to meet the design objectives created by HOK Tampa in collaboration with Elliot Marshall Innes Architecture, Tallahassee.

According to HOK’s Foard Merriwether, AIA, “The goal was to design a timeless building consistent with the best of campus style yet distinct for the College of Medicine.”

The resulting three-story masonry structure, topped with a 15:12-sloped mansard roof, definitely presented installations challenges for roofing contractor Andrew Nelson of Belmac Roofing Company, Inc., Santa Rosa Beach, FL. “It was 30’ to the peak and we were working with 40’ panels with very little area to stage the crates,” Nelson said. “The mansard panels were set on concrete piers on the roof deck and were designed to hide huge chillers and other mechanical equipment. The clearance between the eave and the flat roof was about 2’ or less. So if you were inside the roof with the mechanical equipment, you couldn’t get to the outside without going up and out the gap at the top. It was definitely a challenging situation.”

The general contractor on the project was Centex Construction, Tallahassee.