Mount Hope Cemetery, St. Louis
by Jonathan McGaha | April 29, 2013 12:00 am
Located in St. Louis, Mount Hope Cemetery‘s newest mausoleum and crematory underwent a roof retrofit in 2012. Originally established in 1912, the Sidney Lovell-designed cemetery grounds is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Also listed, is the original Neo-classical style mausoleum with a natural copper roof that was dedicated in 1930 and expanded in 1968, and its Beaux Arts Classical entrance gate, dedicated in 1927.
The newest mausoleum, constructed in 1972 and largely expanded in 1986, is located directly to the east of the original mausoleum. While both mausoleums were built using limestone block, marble and structural concrete, the newest mausoleum had a ballasted rubber membrane flat roof that had reached its end-of-service life. When faced with a major re-roof of nearly 15,000 square feet, Barry Litzsinger, president of Mt. Hope, knew he needed a new roof that would provide a long-term life cycle with minor annual maintenance expense.
BBL Buildings & Components Inc., Perryville, Mo., was the selected contractor to furnish and install the $255,000 re-roofing project. Tim Unterreiner, construction manager for BBL, explains that this was the firm’s first major retrofit project, but their estimated labor hours were very close to the end result. The construction began in early August 2012 with the removal of the existing roof ballast. Some issues encountered during the installation included cutting through the existing membrane to attach the new framing system to the existing concrete decking and maintaining watertightness. This task became easier as they experimented with different types of sealant to find the optimal solution. To comply with the local building code, draftstop vertical walls were installed approximately every 3,500 square feet in the “newly” created attic space between the old roof and underside of the new roof. Also known as “Fireblocking,” the purpose of these walls is to prevent fire migration into the attic space. Finally, funeral services inside and outside nearby the mausoleum had to be respected by suspending work for short periods of time.
McElroy Metal Inc., Bossier City, La., engineered and furnished materials for the retrofit framing and metal roof system. McElroy was selected by BBL due to a long-term supplier relationship. The new mechanically seamed metal roof was McElroy’s 24-gauge Maxima 216 in a Kynar 500 Patina Green color. To create the 24-inch-tall fascia that surrounded the entire roof, McElroy’s 24-gauge concealed fastened Marquee-Lok wall panels in Patina Green were installed. The framing system was designed by McElroy’s Technical Services Group using the currently adopted building code requirements and with consideration to maximum loads that could be imposed into the existing roof’s concrete deck. In addition, the McElroy design team had to accommodate a so-called flat roof that wasn’t actually flat. Near the center of the roof were internal roof drainage troughs that varied in elevation of approximately 18 inches. This caused the vertical framing of the retrofit system to vary constantly throughout the roof and to be field cut-to-length by BBL’s construction team.
McElroy Metal, www.mcelroymetal.com
Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/projects/mount-hope-cemetery-st-louis/