The exterior of Apex Friendship Middle School, is finished with brick veneer and silver insulated metal panels (IMPs). Perkins and Will incorporated the IMPs at a courtyard and other places on the new, three-story, 234,000-squarefoot school building.
Steven Brown, senior project manager at Perkins and Will, says, “With the courtyard being the hub of the school, we wanted a material that could enliven the space. Insulated metal panels allowed us different profile and color options while seamlessly incorporating storefront windows to maximize daylight.”
Metal Roofing Corp. installed 10,000 square feet of Kingspan Insulated Panels Inc.’s IMPs. Two types of IMPs were used: BENCHMARK R Series (ribbed) Designwall Architectural Wall Panels and smooth Designwall 2000 IMPs, both in Sherwin-Williams Coil Coatings’ Metallic Fluropon Classic PVDF Bright Silver coating. For about 800 IMPs, corner extrusions were used, and edges and joints were modified.
Apex Friendship Middle School has capacity for more than 1,400 students. Steven Brown, senior project manager at Perkins and Will, says, “This design is set up to be a prototype school for the Wake County Public School system, so when we looked at material selection, we were looking at ones that could be easily replicated on future projects. That was another plus with insulated metal panels.”
