Denver Art Museum

The Denver Art Museum's 146,000-square-foot expansion is a geometric explosion of glass and titanium.

Project Details:

Name: Denver Art Museum
Dates: Installed in October, 2005
Location: Denver, CO U.S.A.

Project Story:

The Denver Art Museum’s 146,000-square-foot expansion is a geometric explosion of glass and titanium. Internationally renowned architect, Daniel Libeskind, whose other projects include the World Trade Center Memorial in New York and the Jewish Museum in Berlin, designed the building. The magnificent structure is expected to become a signature landmark for the city of Denver.

Longevity and, of course, aesthetics, are a key concern for any building devoted to preserving art and culture. Multiple roofing systems and membranes, including EPDM, were evaluated for this important project. FiberTite, with its high strength fabric puncture and tear resistance and proprietary coating with Dow ELVALOY™ Ketone Ethylene Ester was determined to be the ideal roofing system.

“Technically, this was a tough job. One of the biggest challenges was humidity control since the humidity inside the building can only vary by one tenth of a degree,” reported Tom Ghidotti, FiberTite Western District Sales Manager. Humidity can damage or destroy works of art, so a vapor barrier was used to further protect against moisture or condensation that might penetrate through the screws or plates.

A steel deck with loose laid .25” Dens Deck was covered with a water shield membrane and 2.5” of ISO insulation, which was mechanically fastened to the deck. The ISO was covered with an additional four inches adhered with OlyBond™ polyurethane foam adhesive. This was covered with another .5” of Dens Deck Prime adhered with OlyBond™. The final weatherproofing layer was a 45 mil, custom mocha-colored FiberTite Fleeceback membrane that was adhered with FTR 290 adhesive.

This unique titanium-clad structure also offered more than the usual challenges. “There were lots of very complicated pitches to the roof — nothing was flat,” said Tom, “They also wanted the roof to complement the titanium and we were able to give them exactly what they wanted. I don’t think too many other companies could have done that!”

ELVALOY™ is a trademark of The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) or an affiliated company of Dow.