Food Bank Face Lift

ETFB has always boasted a large volunteer program to supplement its multiple food distribution programs. However, the only area the volunteers had to work in was an existing warehouse, a limiting environment with insufficient space and hazardous equipment nearby. To best help those who depend on it, ETFB was improved, renovated and expanded with new metal panel cladding and a new Volunteer & Nutrition Education Center. This renovation has been awarded the 2020 Metal Construction News Building and Roofing Awards’ Retrofit Metal Walls category winner.

“As architects and designers, approaching a renovation and addition project with a nonprofit organization carries a large responsibility as it is,” says Mary Alice Guidry, AIA, NCARB, project architect at Fitzpatrick Architects, Tyler. “The weight of that responsibility is multiplied when given the charge of aesthetically and functionally connecting a new Volunteer and Nutrition Education Center to an existing warehouse, cold dock and freezer buildings, all with an industrial-style metal panel finish. The addition needed to serve as a warm, welcoming place for volunteers, nutrition classes and other community organizations, all while becoming a branding opportunity for the organization. So, how did we blend these two aesthetics? Metal.”

New Metal Panel Cladding

Since the primary materials on the existing buildings were ribbed metal wall panels and brick veneer, Guidry and the design team decided to continue that palette while updating the look with modern colors and form. White and gray were used for the new gable and oversized porch structures and the existing street-facing buildings were painted to match, tying the campus together with materials, colors and updated branding. A super-graphic logo was painted onto the metal panel cladding for the existing street-facing building. HGR General Contractors, Tyler, was the general contractor.

The design team used a variety of pre-finished metal wall panels because of its longevity and minimal maintenance. For the project, McElroy Metal, Bossier City, La., supplied its 24-gauge Mega-Rib panel in Charcoal Kynar 500 PVDF coating from Arkema Inc., King of Prussia, Pa. The exposed-fastener panels were rollformed in the factory and installed horizontally. Houston-based MBCI supplied its 24-gauge, 16-inch-wide BattenLok HS and Artisan metal wall panels. The concealed-fastener panelshave a siliconized polyester coating in Slate Gray with a smooth finish. Additionally, MBCI supplied its 26-gauge, 4-inch-thick CF Mesa wall panel. The concealed fastener panel has a siliconized polyester coating in White with a smooth finish.

Lee Todd is owner of Tyler-based Landmark Roofing & Sheet Metal, the project’s installer. “[The project] started with attachment points. We worked with plywood in between the new building and the old building. We had to improvise a bit, mainly at attachment points. [Also,] the openings between the new and the old building were a little challenging; making them right took extra care.

We had existing wall panels already. We had to transition from that to a different wall panel. It came out good though. We highlighted different trim colors and didn’t have to match colors. For the retrofit, communication—between the general contractor, the architect and the [ETFB] people—helped us come out with a great product.”

Awards judge Steven Ginn, founding principal at Steven Ginn Architects, Omaha, Neb., says that he really likes the metal walls, “especially where the metal folds over the top. I love the simple agrarian form.”

Awards judge Tim Wybenga, LEED AP, principal at TVA Architects, Portland, Ore., was very impressed with how metal aided the retrofit. “They made some very nice moves in how they treated that existing building,” he says. “Cleaning up that façade and the East Texas Food Bank [sign] on top of it—in what looks like a folded plane coming off of the roof—is very simple. It takes the negative stereotype of a metal building and elevates it and makes it belong with new and more intricate metal buildings. Subtlety and calm go a long way and that’s what I see this project being representative of.”

A New Center

The new Volunteer & Nutrition Education Center has dedicated spaces for volunteer packaging (including a dry goods room, repack room and salvage room), community events, nutrition education classes, staff offices and check-in stations located in a welcoming lobby. The new building is connected to the existing warehouse on one side and existing cold dock on another.

Although the original plan was to utilize structural steel framing, the idea of using a pre-engineered metal building (PEMB) was presented during design development as a potential cost-savings option. A PEMB from Red Dot Buildings, Athens, Texas, was chosen to move forward. Due to the existing warehouse and cold dock also being pre-engineered, revisiting the as-builts and original metal building manufacturer was necessary and ultimately a structural solution for the addition was formed.

“We got creative with the pre-engineered metal building, using a steep rigid-frame gable form next to a lower slope stretching over the patio, drawing from the East Texas farmhouse vernacular,” says Brandy Ziegler, AIA, LEED AP, partner at Fitzpatrick Architects. “For the exterior materials, the warm grey metal wall panel and the lighter grey metal roof panel served to give an updated, modern aesthetic while complementing the existing buildings.