In 2000, the City of Seattle initiated ambitious plans to renovate the 73-year-old Opera House located in the 300-acre Seattle Center, home of the famous Space Needle and the 1962 World’s Fair. Between 2001 and June 2003, more than 775 construction workers from the Skanska Construction Company in Seattle transformed the home of the Seattle Opera into the new Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Drawing on a 25-year relationship, LMN Architects contacted Torin Mowbray in Seattle early in the design phase. A Tnemec coating consultant since 1982, LMN knew that Mowbray would provide exact coating systems for the 450 tons of steel, including the 60 foot tall columns, new 125 foot fly loft, backstage, production areas and miles of handrails.
Working closely with LMN Project Manager Owen Richards, Mowbray specified Series 90-97 Tneme-Zinc, an advanced, two-component, moisture-cured, zinc-rich primer to be shop-applied to the exposed steel being fabricated at the Canron Steel plant in Portland, OR. This new steel would be installed in the extensive fly loft and glass curtain wall support systems. For the dramatic, finished steel curtain wall columns, Series 66 Hi-Build Epoxoline was specified as the intermediate coat.
For the tons of steel used in the new, sophisticated fly loft, Mowbray specified a self-crosslinking acrylic called Series 115 Uni-Bond DF, a flash-rust and corrosion resistant primer/finish for dry interior overheads. For the 60 foot columns, he specified a metallic aliphatic acrylic polyurethane called Series 1077 Enduralume. This finish coat contains a sparkle aluminum pigment creating a stunning glossy metallic finish.
“The 'star performer' of the new Seattle Opera House is unmistakably Tnemec’s Series 1077 Enduralume,” says Mark Taylor, Gudmundson Company’s chief estimator and project manager for McCaw Hall. “It is safe to say that the primary design element of the dramatic, soaring lobby is the sparkling 60-foot-high structural steel columns that support the glass wall. I’ve never seen anything like it! This is really cool stuff. Because of Tnemec's “Bright Aluminum” Enduralume, light actually dances off these columns.”
It is this metallic magic that towers above all the other metallic finishes in the building.