WestCon Tribune

October 2000

OCTOBER MEETING

Re-roofing Marin County Civic Center

Presented by: Chris Nelson, Technical Roof Services, Inc.

For our October meeting, Westcon member Chris Nelson of Technical Roof Services, Inc. will speak on the re-roofing of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Marin County Civic Center.

This roof is one of the most distinctive roofs in the Bay Area because of its location, shape, length, ornamentation and the striking blue color. Located just east of Highway 101 in San Rafael, the structure is on both the Federal and State Historic Registers. Commissioned in 1957, at the age of 90 Frank Lloyd Wright oversaw the design. The documents were 90% complete at the time of his death in 1959.

Completed in two phases in 1963 and 1969, the roofs and skylights have leaked chronically due to several conditions including the type of materials available at that time. Roof and skylight leaks persisted despite repair attempts to the roof coverings and skylight system. During rains, a brigade of buckets was placed on various floor levels, principally along the central mall railing, to catch dripping water.

In February of 1998, Technical Roof Services, Inc. (TRS) was commissioned by the County of Marin to provide roof consulting services on the Administration/Dome and Hall of Justice wings of the Marin County Civic Center.

The roof consisted of fluid applied coatings applied directly to the concrete roof deck. The various existing roof coatings had failed. Complete re-roofing was the only solution. Chris will talk about how leaks were stopped and the challenges involved including: color stable coatings; matching colors on this historic building; miles of flashing of decorative ornaments; dealing with numerous cracks; providing safety tie-offs to facilitate maintenance; interfacing with skylights; controlling odors in an occupied building; and deciding how much of the old coatings to remove that contained hazardous compounds.

In 1999, D.C. Taylor was selected to perform the $1,350,000 re-roofing project based on specifications and drawings prepared by TRS. CAWM was selected at the same time to perform the $150,000 waterproofing of skylights based on documents prepared by Skyline Engineering.

Since substantial completion of the project, the brigade of buckets to catch drips has not been needed. Come and enjoy an evening and learn how how it was done.

Chris Nelson is a Senior Consultant withTechnical Roof Services, Inc.. TRS has provided roof and waterproofing consulting since 1985 with a skilled team of roofing and waterproofing specialists committed to assisting clients to maximize the performance of their roof and building waterproofing systems.

BULLETIN BOARD, MENU, REVIEW , PAST ISSUES