Two clients—Kennecott Land and the Jordan School District, both located in Salt Lake Valley—established program requirements for this Utah project. They wanted the facility to be planned, designed and built with the concept of shared use of space as the primary goal. The result was a facility that could be used to accommodate education, recreation and community gathering needs for a new residential community called Daybreak.
A prominent feature of the Daybreak Elementary School project is metal roofing by MBCI. The architect selected the LokSeam SSR system, a snap-together system. LokSeam features a 1 ¾” high vertical leg which creates interesting shadow lines along the length of the building. The base material was 24-gauge Galvalume-coated steel with the MBCI Signature 300 Series finish in Custom Gray and Colonial Red colors. Signature 300 is a long lasting PVDF resin based paint.
The clients and architects agreed from the beginning that this 117,000 square foot two-level building should harmonize and fit comfortable in the scale of the residential neighborhood. It was essential that the facility be designed to visually reduce the size of the building, avoiding the “big box” expression so prevalent in the design of many schools.
The clients also required that the building be built on a limited budget, be inexpensive to maintain, be energy efficient, and be LEED Certified.
The use of metal wall panels and metal roofing in conjunction with split faced concrete masonry allowed the designers to use materials that had a wide variety of available colors and textures to choose from. Colors and textures were used that could relate to and complement the materials used on the new homes at Daybreak.
To reduce the visual scale of the facility, the designers clustered parts of the building into smaller forms, varied roof heights and roof forms. The metal roof and wall materials were easy to adapt to the desired architectural forms. The metal systems that were selected also provide multiple opportunities for colors and textures. By combining the use of both concrete masonry and metal panels, it helped to make the building more interesting and visually lighter. In addition, the metal roof gave the building more vitality than a traditional asphalt shingle roof.
Many of the exterior walls were constructed of heavy gauge cold-formed metal framing with metal panels on the exterior surface. These walls were much easier and economical to insulate than the concrete masonry walls. This resulted in a building that easily met the energy code requirements. The energy efficiency and the recycle content of the metal walls and roof helped the project attain a LEED Silver rating.
Metal wall and roof panels similar to those used on the Daybreak Elementary School and Community Center have been used on numerous buildings designed by Brixen & Christopher Architects. The primary reason these products were used on this facility was because of their visual interest. Other reason why the metal wall and roof panels were used on the Daybreak project include: product quality for a competitive price; self-cleaning, easy to maintain surface; durability; warranty; recycled content of steel; and the fact that steel is 100% recyclable.
The project architect was Brixen & Christopher Architects, Salt Lake City, UT. The general contractor was Bud Mahas Construction, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT. The metal roof installer was All Metals Fabrication.