Customers at fast food restaurants across the country find products from Golden State Foods to be the perfect complement to their meals. When the producer of  condiments, dressings, sauces, syrups and toppings needed to expand its warehousing square footage through the addition of a Texas facility, it found a perfect complement of a different sort, insulated metal panel systems from Kingspan Insulated Panels North America.

Golden State Foods' support for the fast food restaurant industry extends across the United States, but it was the accelerated growth in Texas and surrounding states that prompted the construction of a $70 million, 200,000-square-foot facility in Burleston, just south of Fort Worth. 

BW Design Group, which specializes in food & beverage life sciences, advanced technology and industrial designs, was selected as the architects for the new facility, which is the third for Golden State Foods. Priorities for design and construction were that it be up and running quickly, and that it meet health and safety standards for food manufacturing. The architects immediately turned to insulated metal panels, knowing speed-of-build was critical, along with thermal efficiency.

“In our world, insulated metal panels are the perfect enclosure material. Once they’re assembled, you get a very good thermal and moisture barrier. Because it is a solid system, there’s no chance for any kind of mold growth or pest harborage within the panel,” said Bill Peterson, AIA LEED AP BD+C of BW Design Group.

BW Design Group enlisted Insulation Systems, Inc. for the installation of the Kingspan KS Series insulated metal panels. KS Shadowline interior insulated metal panels, which are designed to offer the highest R-value for controlled environments and cold storage, meet USDA guidelines, making them an ideal choice for food processing environments. This interior wall and ceiling system offers a perfectly engineered joint, which ensures a tight vapor barrier. They are built to withstand high temperature wash-downs, critical for a food processing setting.

Additionally, all Kingspan KS Series panels are GREENGUARD Gold certified, which verifies they are not harmful to building occupants and do not adversely impact indoor environment quality. They are available with QuadCore® technology, Kingspan’s next generation self-blended hybrid insulation core, increasing R-values, and therefore improving energy efficiency.

KS Granitstone, used for the majority of the exterior, allowed architects to achieve the desired look. The stucco masonry lookalike in Imperial White contrasts with the metallic Dark Bronze of the KS Shadowline, which is used as exterior visual accents.

"It was important to our client that our design keep within the corporate appearance of their other facilities. We needed to be able to incorporate established architectural themes and use their signature champagne and white colors,” said Peterson.

When workers and customers drive up to the circular driveway of the Golden State Foods plant in Burleson, they see more than a box. With gleaming entranceways and accents, the manufacturing facility is a stand-out not just for the neighborhood, but for Golden State Foods as a whole.