Arthur Cole Painting Corporation
39 Mason Street
Worcester,
MA
01610
DCole@ColePainting.com
Phone: 508-799-9019
Fax: Fax: 508-797-4049
Surface-Tolerant Coating Protects Hockey Rink Ceiling
A New Technology, calcium-sulfonate-based paint on the ceiling of the Hart Recreation Center ice rink in Worcester, Massachusetts, continues to exhibit impressive performance after almost 10 years of exposure under difficult conditions.
In 1983, 8 years after the opening of the recreation center, the ceiling paint showed signs of deterioration. The physical plant department sought a cost-effective way to remove the loose rust and paint and to repaint the roof and its support structures. The ribbed-steel ceiling and large bar joists covered an area of more than 26,000 square feet of paintable structural steel.
The method most often used under these conditions to repaint failing steel is a commercial blast (SSPA-SP6), followed by an application of two-coat epoxy paint system. Arthur Cole, President of the Arthur Cole Painting Corporation in Worcester, offered an alternative suggestion.
Cole suggested that the costly and time-consuming commercial blast be eliminated in favor of sweep blasting—a method that would remove only loose rust scale and paint, allowing adherent paint to remain. He did not consider an epoxy system satisfactory for this job because most welded connections in a bar joist are inaccessible to the painter because they are dip-primed in the shop before erection.
"Rusting in some places would crawl under the epoxy and lift it off," Cole said. "Therefore, use of a product providing exceptional adhesion over a variety of surface types would stop the spread of rust by preventing moisture penetration and film disbandment."
The Coating System The coating system, Chemotex 81, supplied by CPC Corp. in Wallingford, Connecticut, consisted of a combination of alkyd resins and calcium sulfonate corrosion inhibitors. George Wise, Vice President of the Chemotex division of CPC Corp., worked with Cole on application details.
The Chemotex 81 sulfonate compounds, developed by Witco Corp.'s Sonneborne Division, New York, are distributed under the SACI (Severe Atmospheric Corrosion Inhibitors) trademark.
For site preparation, Cole placed Polyethylene sheeting on the concrete surface of the rink, fastening it down to protect it from scaffold marks and over spray. Polyethylene protectors were placed over stadium seats, walls, and other exposed surfaces as well.
Application After covering, Cole used a six-bag sandblaster to achieve an SSPC-SP7 brush-off blast on the deck and joists. "This saved many hours over an SP6 commercial blast cleaning," he said, "creating less debris to be cleaned up within the auditorium."
Using airless spray equipment, Cole's crew sprayed the ribs and bars of the ceiling with the SPCI-based Chemotex coating. A single coat sprayed to a thickness of 6 millimeters proved sufficient to assure a long-term corrosion resistance.
The Chemotex coating system continues to protect after almost 10 years of service.
The Rebel Next Door
It all started innocently enough. Yet another Massachusetts resident returned from a midwinter work trip to discover that the pipes in his North End town house had frozen. Then they burst, of course, forcing him to pay laborers to rip open walls and perform mandatory residential surgery.
That was 3 years ago. Today, the modest remodeling that could have been has turned into one of the most visually stunning—critics would say assaultive—reconstruction projects to be performed on a Boston home.
And, as if the design itself weren't striking enough to make a statement all its own, consider this: The building in question stands just yards to the right of one of the city's most famous landmarks, Old North Church; the facade that has been remade is one that faces the historic icon so that visitors looking out of the church's state it: 270-year-old windows can't miss the high-tech, brick-metal-wood view across the way.
"It's not calm, it's not retiring, but this needed to be challenging to act as a worthy complement to the church," says Treffle LaFleche of LDA Architects in Cambridge, who designed the buildings new look, inside and out. "I think anything else would have been just another boring facade . . . and what's the value of that?"
The home's 42-year-old owner says he urged the architects to push the limits to create something unique and is delighted with the outcome of LaFleche's efforts. The owner acknowledges that not all of his neighbors and not all of the church's officials were initially thrilled with the aggressive design. But, he adds, since it's recent completion, nearly all of the comments he has received have been positive.
It's certainly not something you can stroll by without noticing or forming an opinion about. Most of the brickwork of the narrow, freestanding former row house has been refaced to a bright orange finish. But a majority of bricks on the east side, facing the church, has been replaced with teak terraces and a bay composed of large pains of glass framed by panels of lead-coated copper. A zinc-coated chimney flue dramatically completes the picture.
LaFleche says he chose his materials and colors, outside and within the house, to reflect and evoke traditional North End construction. With its own modern twist, of course. The house itself is the only freestanding structure in the North End, though that wasn't always the case. It once was flanked by three identical units, on its right and one more on its left in a charming little enclave on unity court. But the neighboring houses burned down or were demolished during the early part of this century, leaving the historic church site with this single abutter, the two buildings separated only by a beautifully manicured war-memorial garden owned by the church.
That its owner can enjoy an exquisite view of the church and its garden, either from inside his home or from one of its porches, is perhaps the most rewarding aspect of this redesign. He's even luckier than that, though: The vistas from his lovely new rooftop deck offer a spectacular panorama of the city, with sweeping views of everything from grandmothers hanging laundry on clotheslines atop their modest homes to the soaring skyscrapers of the Boston skyline.
The inside is pretty grand, too, though it's not quite finished yet. The owner says he is waiting for "some more money to come in" before "stage two" can be completed. Clearly, the few-holds-barred renovation was costly, says the owner, "There was a moment when I realized, it didn't matter how much I spent anymore because I was never going to sell this place. I want to live here." The building is just 14 feet wide and 55 feet long, but it is 50 feet high on five levels—including the rooftop deck. Slightly steep stairs separate the floors, but they're not at all imposing; rather, LaFleche designed them with the feel of a flowing spiral staircase.
They rise along a wall composed of large panels of muted linen-white, pumpkin, and blue-green. Again, the colors draw on additional North End hues but are unabashedly meant to make a statement of their own. They also provide inventive, modern backdrops for artwork, of which the owner has an impressive collection.
The floors, too, suggest a modern interpretation of the New England construction. Instead of oak, the strips of tongue-and-groove material are composed of redwood. The long, narrow shape of the building created a layout challenge. LaFeche's solution was to give each level a distinct purpose. The first floor is a guest suite, with its own parlor, kitchenette, and bathroom; the second is a dining area (with a small fireplace opposite the bay window facing the church) adjoining a modern kitchen, with stainless steel appliances and green granite work surfaces; the third is a living space composed of a sitting room with a black Swedish-design wood-burning stove opposite another balcony, a study that will be lined with cherry bookcases and a bathroom; and the fourth is a bedroom suite, office, bath, and of course, a balcony.
Whatever aesthetic benefits the owner gets out of all this, he will have to endure at least one burden: Walking around almost anywhere in the house without much apparel would seem impossible, given that the clarity of vision from the church is as distinct as the view toward it.
Presumably, he also will forever have to contend with the compliments and complaints of friends and neighbors—and of people he's never met before, of visitors who make their way into the neighborhood to see a piece of old Boston and get an architectural twofer that they probably hadn't anticipated.
"Whether you like it or not," LaFleche says, "it's truly going to force people to evaluate the evolution of the urban fabric."
A New Technology, calcium-sulfonate-based paint on the ceiling of the Hart Recreation Center ice rink in Worcester, Massachusetts, continues to exhibit impressive performance after almost 10 years of exposure under difficult conditions.
It all started innocently enough. Yet another Massachusetts resident returned from a midwinter work trip to discover that the pipes in his North End town house had frozen. Then they burst, of course, forcing him to pay laborers to rip open walls and perform mandatory residential surgery.