Photo: Francis Zera
For curtainwall framing in a renovation of Pier 17, an entertainment and restaurant venue, SHoP Architects wanted the look of mill finished aluminum with a clear coating. However, the building is subject to corrosive salt spray at its location on the East River, about five miles from the Atlantic Ocean. To mimic the appearance of mill finished aluminum, SHoP Architects specified a custom Silver powder coating applied on a primer coat.
Additionally, the curtainwall on Pier 17 features custom light boxes. Inside the light boxes are metal wall panels with a liquid coating of Silver-Gray. On top of that, a stencil with a dot matrix pattern was applied and coated in white. The Silver-Gray panels with white dots diffuse daylight during daytime and colored lights at nighttime in a distinct pattern.
Scott Moffatt, market manager, building products, at PPG Industries Inc., says, “The only way to fulfill the architect’s demand for a powder coating and long-term warranty in a moist, salt-laden marine environment was to apply it over our proven PPG Duranar primer. While one-coat powder systems typically perform well in normal environments, they are susceptible to failure in environments like South Street Seaport. It was very gratifying to offer a solution that met the architect’s challenging requirements.”
On the aluminum curtainwall extrusions, Spectrum Metal Finishing Inc. applied PPG’s primer and Duranar Sunstorm in Silver. Keymark Corp. supplied the extrusions.
On about 500 metal wall panels for the light boxes, which were fabricated and installed by Enclos Corp., Spectrum Metal Finishing applied PPG’s Duranar Sunstorm in custom Silver-Gray. The Silver-Gray coating has mica pearlescent flakes in it, which makes it sparkle in lighting. With the dot matrix stencil, Spectrum Metal Finishing applied Bone White coating on the panels.