Mississippi Aquarium, Gulfport, Miss.

by Rosa Soto | 15 September 2021 12:00 am

Eley Guild Hardy Architects designed three buildings at Mississippi Aquarium with curved forms. The buildings’ rounded, guitar pick-shaped forms have three curved walls that splay outward as they rise. The project was complex because the buildings are clad with curved, overlapping zinc tiles required to withstand hurricane-force winds up to 175 miles per hour.

Kurt Allen, president and CEO at Mississippi Aquarium, says, “From an architectural perspective, we wanted to be unique. Our buildings are guitar pick-shaped with odd angles and they add a distinctive look and color to the skyline.”

The project comprised a 22,200-square-foot Aquatic Wonders exhibits building, 13,600-squarefoot Changing Tides events building and 5,400-square-foot ticketing services and gift shop building.

Each building is a different size and shape. To make them look uniform in overall massing, each building has different sizes of panels. Thomas Allen, AIA, of Eley Guild Hardy Architects, says, “It’s a forced perspective. Hopefully, you won’t be able to notice the difference.”

The Aquatic Wonders building has 24-inch by 24- inch zinc tiles, Changing Tides building has 20-inch by 20-inch tiles on its façade, parapet and canopy, and the ticketing/gift shop has 16-inch by 16-inch tiles.

“[The walls] get bigger as you go up and some of these walls are over 60 feet high,” Allen says. “We didn’t want [the walls] to feel too big and overwhelm visitors. When you’re standing inside the park, everything should feel approachable.”

Before the zinc, Roofing Solutions LLC installed a fire-treated, exterior-grade plywood substrate and thick liquid waterproofing coating. At its shop, Roofing Solutions fabricated RHEINZINK America Inc.’s 1-mm-thick prePATINA blue-grey zinc, diamond, flat-lock tiles and shipped them to the job site. Approximately 16,000 tiles were used.

Steve Stetson, of Oakland Metal Sales Inc., which distributed the zinc, says, “We provided the zinc coils in three custom widths to make it easier for Roofing Solutions to fabricate the precise panel sizes with efficiency and minimal scrap.”

Roofing Solutions’ workers anchored each tile in place with sealed, concealed fasteners in a scaled, offset, overlapping pattern.

To shelter visitors from rain, entrances and ticket windows are inset in walls. Roofing Solutions fabricated and installed custom trim, flashings and other details with zinc.

David Furr, general manager at Roofing Solutions in Mississippi, says, “Thousands and thousands of panels were fabricated by our crew at our Prairieville factory [in Louisiana] and then shipped to the job site in phases. The material was placed in covered storage on-site so that our people in the field had the supply they needed to install 50 to 60 tiles each day.”

The three buildings are located on the aquarium’s 5.8-acre site. They are connected by landscaped walkways with plants representing Mississippi’s seven physiographic regions. Habitats in the aquarium contain 1 million gallons of salt and fresh water and habitats for marine mammals, otters, alligators, crocodiles, river animals and shore birds.

Source URL: https://www.metalconstructionnews.com/projects/mississippi-aquarium-gulfport-miss/

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