Magnificent Metal Monday travels to Pittsburgh, PA, the location of METALCON 2019, for a look at a unique three-story home built in one of the city’s dense urban neighborhoods. Designed by David W. Nitchkey, a principal at CORE Architects of Pittsburgh, he opted for the use of exposed fastener panels from McElroy Metal for the home’s exterior.
Nitchkey’s home appeared in a recent issue of DesignandBuildwithMetal.com as a “featured project.” Nitchkey explains, “My wife and I both wanted to live in a contemporary urban home, reflecting a modern design on both the exterior and the interior. We chose metal to create the contemporary industrial aesthetic of the exterior. Beyond aesthetics, the exposed fastener metal panel system provided an economical solution and the material is basically maintenance free. After maintaining a large 1950s era suburban home for 14 years, we were ready to spend less time on exterior maintenance and more time enjoying the benefits of living in a city neighborhood.” Part of their decision to use metal was also to pay homage to the city’s steeped history in steel and metal making.
The home measures 2,500 square feet on a narrow 20-foot by 60-foot lot. “As a designer, I looked at the exterior cladding as an exercise in graphic design,” Nitchkey says. “The dimensional profiles, direction of the panel patterns, panel sizes and seaming, and exposed fastener colors, all became part of the layers of the design. Conceptually, the first floor horizontal U-Panels in a Charcoal color, provide a dark base to ground the structure and create a platform to support the silver Galvalume volume of the second and third floors, clad in vertical U-Panels. To provide a visual interest, ‘the wedge’ utilizes horizontal Mega Rib panels in Regal White. The added depth of these panels contrasts nicely against the shallower U-Panels.
Abreez Contracting of Pittsburgh installed the McElroy panels: 1,140 square feet of U-Panels in Charcoal, 3,408 square feet of U-Panels in unfinished Galvalume, 360 square feet of Mega-Rib panels in Regal White and 162 square feet of Matrix soffit panels in unfinished Galvalume.
McElroy Metal markets metal roofing, siding, and substructural products for architectural, residential, commercial, and industrial applications. McElroy has 13 manufacturing facilities across the United States. You can visit McElroy Metals and see their latest product line in Booth #1740 at METALCON 2019.
DesignandBuildwithMetal.com will also be on hand at METALCON 2019 with their generous support of the cash prizes for the Innovation Station Scavenger Hunt.
