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LEWISVILLE, Texas, 2020 – Because time waits for no one, keeping enclosure time at a minimum was vital in the construction of the Solano County SB 1022 Classroom and Vocational Training Center in Fairfield, Calif. Building codes require the building be enclosed before much of the inside work begins, so Metl-Span’s HPCI Barrier Wall Panels were prescribed to keep construction moving along.

The project was voted as 2018’s best by the Metal Building Contractors & Erectors Association in the Educational & Recreational category. The classroom is part of the Solano County correctional program that helps inmates rejoin the workforce. That means all exterior and interior details of the building were inspected by the design team to ensure inmates could find nothing to use as a weapon against an officer or another inmate.

“It was a very successful project,” says Kevin Hallock, AIA, NCARB, senior architect at Kitchell CEM of Sacramento, Calif. “The metal met the owners’ requirements and we were able to do that with a flexible and economical system. It’s an impressive project that ended up achieving LEED certification.”

Two buildings using the HPCI Barrier System were erected by Quality Erectors & Construction Inc. of Benicia, Calif. Building A (classroom and training center), is 11,791 square feet and Building B (maintenance building), is 32,907 square feet. QEC installed HPCI Barrier Wall Panels on steel framing from Garco Building Systems to provide a finished interior and an exterior backing support for a brick façade along the lower part of the wall and a single skin metal panel from the brick to the soffits. The single skin metal panels were attached to 1-1/2-inch galvanized hat channels.

“A quick enclosure was essential to getting other trades in the building and working,” says Ethan Law, lead estimator and project manager at QEC. “This system seals up the building; it’s an air, water, thermal and vapor barrier in a single component, so it’s a quicker install while providing the project’s required R-value.”

Hallock expects Building A to achieve LEED Gold status and Building B to receive LEED Silver certification.

The HPCI barrier panels, with a 2-inch urethane core, allowed for the use of multiple façade options. Exterior and interior panels were 26-gauge Galvalume, painted Igloo White with a Light Mesa finish. On Building A, the 7,081 square feet of HPCI barrier panels were a backer for a low-rise brick façade and a horizontal single skin metal panel. On Building B, a single skin metal panel was installed vertically on just more than 19,000 square feet of HPCI barrier panels.

“Conventional construction was considered, but in order to meet LEED certification and to do so economically, the metal building and the HPCI panels were the best option, Hallock says. “The metal wall system allowed us to add batt insulation required to meet the R-value we were hoping to achieve.”

Hallock says the color options of the HPCI barrier panels allowed the design team to match colors on nearby buildings that are part of the Solano County campus.

The buildings were topped off with MBCI’s Double-Lok standing seam roofing.

Metl-Span is a NUCOR® company. (NYSE: NUE ); delivering high-quality, durable and energy-efficient insulated metal panels designed for unparalleled performance to stand the test of time.