Around the country, many cities are seeing a revitalization in their downtown areas and Birmingham, Ala., is no different. One of the businesses leading the way is The Birmingham News, which in 2006 built a new headquarters to house more than 350 employees. The $21 million, 110,000-square-foot structure, with a brick exterior, includes a four-story atrium and state-of-the-art communications technology.

This is the fourth home for the newspaper, which began publishing as The Evening News in 1888 in a one-story brick building. It moved seven years later and again in 1917 to a spot it called home until the new building was complete.

The renovation’s design includes beams reminiscent of the style found in old warehouses and downtown office buildings, with a brick exterior and a four-story curtain wall storefront.

For the exterior exposed structural steel, project architects looked to Tnemec to provide the ultimate in corrosion protection as well as long-term aesthetic durability. The steel was prepared in accordance with SSPC-SP6/NACE No. 3 Commercial Blast Cleaning, followed by an application of Series 90-97 Tneme-Zinc, a moisture-cured, zinc-rich aromatic urethane primer. An intermediate coat of Series 66 Hi-Build Epoxoline, a polyamide epoxy known for its benchmark performance, was applied next, followed by a topcoat of Series 1072 Fluoronar in a “Birmingham Bronze” custom color. Series 1072 is a high-solids fluoropolymer coating that provides an ultra-durable finish and outstanding color and gloss retention.

This coating system featuring the advanced technology found in Fluoronar will provide outstanding color and gloss protection for decades in the high UV environment found in the “deep south.”