Plastics News Article

This article appeared in Plastics News, August 22, 1994

Composites build a following
Architectural applications catch on slowly

By Roger Renstrom
Plastics News Correspondent

From Las Vegas casinos to restore historical buildings, composites are finding a home in unusual architectural products. But working with composites, like fiberglass, requires an open mind.

"Fabricators must take advantage of new materials," said Thomas Jones, plant manager of Fiberglass Specialties Inc. in Henderson, Texas, a supplier of church steeples and baptisteries. Most fabricators "keep trudging along" without using new materials because managers have not seen a need to change, Jones said.

Fiberglass Specialties found an alternative to bonding for large areas. Jones uses two-part structural adhesives with pneumatic or hand-held dispensing guns. "Structural adhesives are more expensive, but they are clean, fast and strong," Jones said.

Fabricators, however, have been slow to accept the adhesives, commonly used in car, truck, boat and tank applications. The market requires sophistication, including more use of rubber and silicone molds to reproduce leaf, scroll and carved designs. "Architects have become more creative and expect fabricators to turn out unusual shapes," Jones said.

Fiberglass Specialties, a 30-year-old firm employing 60, this year expects to customize more than 40 percent of its work, including an 80-foot steeple installed this month at a Virginia church.

Split among more than 100 shops, annual U.S. sales of FRP architectural products may exceed $50 million. "If we took the top companies, a case can be made for there being $25 million to $30 million," said Bill Hale, general manager of custom molder Contemporary Products Inc. in Austin, Texas. That figure does not include small regional firms or in-house work at theme parks. Half of his firm's work is architectural.

FRP was considered experimental until the mid-1970s, but has doubled in architectural use in the past 10 years. One reason is because FRP can expedite a construction schedule. "If you take something on the contractor's critical path and produce it off-site, you've made a tremendous impact on his schedule and, in some cases, that savings can be worth a few or dozens of times whatever you charge for the part," said William Kreysler, whose northern California firm uses FRP, concrete and gypsum in decorative products.

A 40-foot tall "Inverted Collar and Tie" sculpture by Claes Oldenberg and Coosje van Bruggen was installed in June at Deutsche Genossenschafts Bank's garden court in Frankfurt, Germany. Kreysler's crews created the sculpture in California, had Hipp Plastic Wrap of San Diego wrap it in shrink film and shipped the 20,000-pound piece on a six-week river and ocean voyage via the Panama Canal to Europe.

William Kreysler & Associates Inc. in Penngrove, Calif., employs 20 and anticipates 1994 revenues approaching $2 million. Kreysler is chairman of the architectural division for the Arlington, Va.-based, 700-member Composites Fabricators Association.

Usually, nonload-bearing custom architectural applications use commodity laminates consisting of E-type glass fiber and polyester resin and have lower performance requirements than those in aerospace or automotive. More applications will come as theoretical work for civil engineering bridgework guides more architects to look at the strength of composites, said Robert Lacovara, ACMA technical services director.

"More architects are specifying FRP, and it will become a building product," said R.J. Pierson Jr., executive vice president of DEC Associates Inc. in Anaheim, Calif. "Economic factors make FRP attractive when considering overall benefits and economies." DEC manufactures fiberglass-reinforced products of polyester and gypsum at a 7-year-old, 40,000-square-foot maquiladora plant employing 95 in Tijuana, Mexico. DEC paints the material at a 15,000-square-foot facility employing 35 in Anaheim.

In addition to new construction, FRP is carving a niche in the restoration market, where it is replacing traditional materials. "There's huge potential in restoration, but the biggest hurdle is marketing [FRP] and its capabilities to architects and owners," said Anthony Mirenda, vice president of Toeniskoetter & Breeding Inc., a San Jose, Calif., construction firm. In April, Mirenda completed a $62,300 FRP job replicating 128-year-old, cast-iron window surrounds, missing for years at the old Santa Clara County courthouse. Structural loading and budget restraints ruled out duplicating the originals in cast iron.

San Diego fabricator Dimensional Décor & Designs is producing FRP gargoyles, sculptures and vines from molds to replicate a 1915 Panama Exposition structure. Scheduled for completion in December 1995, the 70,000-square-foot reconstruction will replace a structure that lasted 79 years, although designed to last only two. The FRP work is budgeted for 10 percent of the $6.2 million project in San Diego's Balboa Park.

Fibertech Corp. in Pendleton, S.C., produces cornices, balustrades, columns and pilasters. According to Vice President Elinor Wilson the company supplies fiberglass that the National Park Service has approved. Composites can even be used to rehabilitate structures listed on, or eligible for, the National Register of Historic Places. If the project is approved, owners may qualify for investment tax credit.

"We look at the impact of the proposed changes to the fabric and character of the historic materials, taking into consideration economic and technical feasibility," said Tom Buehner, historic architect with the National Park Service's preservation assistance division. If repair or exact replacement is not feasible, substitute materials, including FRP, may be approved on a case-by-case basis. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which oversees architectural work at 18 museum-class properties such as the Frank Lloyd Wright home in Oak Park, Ill., has accepted FRP as a substitute material.

Some of the largest FRP work takes place at resorts and theme parks. Miami-based Arquitectonica designed Walt Disney Co.'s 1,920-room economy All-Star Sports Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Although Disney declines to discuss materials or acknowledge suppliers, a release mentions 38-foot-tall surfboards, 5-foot-diameter basketballs, and outfield fence, giant footballs and oversized tennis balls at five hotels, two now open and three being completed this fall. A sister property, Disney's All-Star Music Resort, opens in 1995 with five hotels and, together with the All-Star Sports Resort, exceeds $8 million in FRP work, according to industry observers.

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Last updated: 09/21/06