February 15, 2016 - Windows & Exterior Walls
Ivy Street Center is the first new academic building on the Marist School campus in Brookhaven, Ga., in more than 20 years, and is the signature project in Phase 1 of the Campus Master Plan. Marist School is a private Roman Catholic college preparatory school serving 1,100 students in grades 7-12. The new 55,000-square-foot Ivy Street Center serves as home for the mathematics and English departments.
The school community chose carefully to design a building that will serve students for years. The structure was built on the footprint of the razed Kuhrt Gym, a 50-year-old building. “The charge was to design a combination classroom building that wrapped around a new gymnasium,” says Will Stelten, S/L/A/M Collaborative design architect. The new building now offers 16 classroom spaces, a tiered lecture hall, a 275 seat gymnasium plus collaborative areas and a campus store.
Two PAC-CLAD profiles were specified for roofing and wall applications on the three-story, highly-sustainable structure. Approximately 6,000 square feet of Petersen Aluminum’s M-36 wall panels were used to clad a major portion of the façade. An additional 6,000 square feet of Tite-Loc Plus roof panels were used on large canopies and overhangs at prominent locations on the building. All panels were finished with Valspar Fluropon Silver.
The building is larger than most on the campus. “We felt that introducing the metal panels helped lighten the building and break up the massing in a way that made it more interesting,” Stelten says. “The M-36 panel is an interesting profile to use on a building like this. It has deep shadow lines that help add lightness and a horizontal feel.” The original design called for aluminum composite material to be used for the siding, but that proved to be too expensive. The Petersen M-36 system was a departure from the original plan but it was aluminum, it was silver, and made a nice statement with the right detailing. The second PAC-CLAD system used on the job was Petersen Aluminum’s Tite-Loc Plus double-lock, mechanically seamed roofing panels.
Marist School made a commitment to environmental stewardship as it built the new facility. “Sustainability has been a big feature on the campus. It fits in with the overall philosophy of the school,” said Marist Father John Harhager, school president. Sustainability features of the building include a three-part daylight harvesting system of exterior sunshades, interior light shelves and sloped ceilings. Glare inside classrooms is minimized, and daylight reaches deeply into rooms, allowing classroom lights to remain off the majority of the time. Rain water is saved to a 3,400 gallon cistern filled from two sources: the sloped gym roof and condensate from the HVAC system. The water in the cistern is used for irrigation of the planted rain garden. The building also features water bottle refill stations to reduce disposable water bottle waste. Sustainable materials include colorful sound-absorbing panels made of machine pressed, recycled plastic bottles in the gymnasium, reclaimed elm wood panels in the lobby, and locally sourced materials.
Long-recognized for its metal standing seam roofing products, Petersen Aluminum also offers metal wall panels including exposed fastener panels, flush panels, composite wall panels and column covers. All provide the well-known Petersen Aluminum quality and are available in PAC-CLAD full 70 percent PVDF finish in 38 standard colors on steel and 37 on aluminum. Most colors meet LEED, Energy Star and Cool Roof Rating Council certification requirements.
