Missouri Baptist Hospital, St. Louis, Mo.
Architect: Zimmer Gunzul Frasca Architects (ZGF), Los Angeles, Calif.
Sheet Metal Contractor: Kuenz Heating & Sheet Metal, St. Charles, Mo.
When a community hospital needed a new facade, the craftsmen at Kuenz Heating and Sheet Metal worked alongside architects Zimmer Gunzul Frasca to create something that would be visually appealing.
The Rimex green stainless steel material was challenging to work with due to its green anodized finish that could not be repaired if scratched.
The $1,055,000 job included stainless steel metal flat seam wall panels or metal shingles, Centria foam insulated wall panels and aluminum composite panels. The materials used were Rimex Green stainless steel, Centria foam panels and Universe Corp composite panels. The 420 flat sheets of Rimex material was manufactured (colored) in England and shipped to Kuenz for shearing and fabrication to the required sizes.
For Kuenz Heating and Sheet Metal the project proved to be particularly challenging because they had to be extremely precise when ordering the materials, as they were so expensive and took 14 weeks to get from England. The material was also harder to work with since it was 20-gage stainless and had a green anodized finish that could not be repaired, if scratched.
In addition, the building had numerous openings and vertical aluminum accent fins requiring special notched panels that had to be measured in the field. To keep the field crews going, they measured the accent fins while, the wall panels were being installed. The measurements were faxed to the shop for immediate fabrication. There were more than 300 different shapes and sizes of panels. It took five months to install 10,000-square feet of the metal shingles.
The Rimex green stainless steel material arrived in varying shades of green. Kuenz had to submit a color range to the architect for approval and Rimex had to color the sheets within that range. It is this variance in color that makes the finished product so interesting. The seam pattern and panel size are visible due to the range of colors and the panels change color depending on the light conditions.