FirstEnergy Stadium, where the Cleveland Browns play their home games, may be covered in the same cladding used on Grenfell Tower, according to the Associated Press. The cladding is being investigated as a possible accelerate in the tragic London fire that killed at least 80 people last month.
In promotional brochures on Arconic’s (the company that sells the panels) website, FirstEnergy Stadium is listed as using 100,000 sf of the cladding in question on its exterior. Additionally, the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel, an Alaskan high school, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport’s Terminal D, a nine-story mixed-use building in Denver, and six Early Development Education Centers for the Detroit Public School System are also listed as having used the cladding.
However, because in many cases the building records have been discarded, the owners, operators, contractors, and architects are unable to confirm if Arconic’s Reynobond panels were used on any of the structures in question.
A spokesman for Cleveland’s mayor would not confirm or deny if the city-owned stadium was built with the cladding in question, saying any questions would need to wait until the investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire finishes.
In the case of the Baltimore Marriott, which was constructed in 2001, an architect who worked on the project said he destroyed his building records pertaining to the property in 2011 because his contract only requires him to keep files for 10 years.
According to the AP story, the U.S buildings have not been declared unsafe and no widespread testing of aluminum paneling has been initiated by the U.S. government as of yet.
To read the entire AP story, click here.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Seven tips for specifying and designing with insulated metal wall panels
Insulated metal panels, or IMPs, have been a popular exterior wall cladding choice for more than 30 years. These sandwich panels are composed of liquid insulating foam, such as polyurethane, injected between two aluminum or steel metal face panels to form a solid, monolithic unit. The result is a lightweight, highly insulated (R-14 to R-30, depending on the thickness of the panel) exterior clad...
| Aug 11, 2010
Nurturing the Community
The best seat in the house at the new Seahawks Stadium in Seattle isn't on the 50-yard line. It's in the southeast corner, at the very top of the upper bowl. "From there you have a corner-to-corner view of the field and an inspiring grasp of the surrounding city," says Kelly Kerns, project leader with architect/engineer Ellerbe Becket, Kansas City, Mo.
| Aug 11, 2010
AIA Course: Enclosure strategies for better buildings
Sustainability and energy efficiency depend not only on the overall design but also on the building's enclosure system. Whether it's via better air-infiltration control, thermal insulation, and moisture control, or more advanced strategies such as active façades with automated shading and venting or novel enclosure types such as double walls, Building Teams are delivering more efficient, better performing, and healthier building enclosures.
| Aug 11, 2010
Glass Wall Systems Open Up Closed Spaces
Sectioning off large open spaces without making everything feel closed off was the challenge faced by two very different projects—one an upscale food market in Napa Valley, the other a corporate office in Southern California. Movable glass wall systems proved to be the solution in both projects.
