The inspiration for the National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, Va., was the famous image of six Marines raising the American flag at Iwo Jima. Designed by Fentress Bradburn Architects, Denver, the museum has a 210-foot (64-m) stainless-steel clad mast that protrudes at a 60-degree angle through a conical skylight atop the gallery. The general contractor, Centex Construction, Fairfax, Va., selected Naturalite Skylight Systems, Terrell, Texas, to manufacture and install the unique skylight. They also supplied and installed exterior aluminum beam cladding and the stainless-steel mast panel systems for the project. The metal panel installation work was subcontracted to National Panel Systems, Wexford, Pa. Heitmann and Associates, St. Louis, provided consulting services.
The skylight’s concrete ring beam is supported by 38 columns and a system of wideflange ridge and rib beams, also supplied by Naturalite, that frame the skylight. The ridge and rib beams are clad with factory-finished stainless steel, which contrasts with the mast’s more reflective stainless steel. The ridge beams are spaced 8 1/2 feet (3 m) apart along one-third of the ring beam and slope in the same direction of the mast. Smaller rib beams run perpendicular to the ridge beams and are spaced closer together around the remainder of the ring.
The conical skylight supports the stainless steel mast, tapering in sections from 15 by 7 feet (4.6 by 2 m) at the base to 4 by 3 1/2 feet(1.2 by 1 m) at the top. The mast was designed as a hollow triangular spire due to weight concerns and because its interior is used as a mechanical room.
Southern Aluminum Finishing Co. Inc., Atlanta, fabricated the stainless-steel panels that comprised the cladding on the spire. Created from #4 polished 11-gauge stainless-steel fl at sheets, SAF fabricated approximately 350 panels for the project. No two panels were exactly alike, as the size of each panel shrunk approximately 3/4 inch (19 mm) per panel.
Viracon, Owatonna, Minn., supplied two primary glass make-ups, both using a high performance, low-E coating on an EverGreen tinted glass substrate. Viracon’s VE8-2M and VE8-40 coatings were used. Additionally, a 1 5/16-inch (33-mm) insulating laminated VE8- 40 incorporated a dot silk-screen pattern on the number-two surface. The fabricated glass panels were shipped to Virginia and installed into the skylight one at a time by crane.
College Park Glass, Hyattsville, Md., installed the curtainwall; storefronts and entrances; windows and interior; and specialty glass-three lites of glass that spanned 13 by 8 feet (4 by 2.4 m) that are etched and sandblasted with the Marine Corps logo.
