At first glance it looks like nothing much has changed on the roof since the last picture. Closer inspection shows that the roofers are installing the dripcaps on the lower edges of the roof. This copper edging has specially bent flanges that will receive the descending edge of the roofing, making a watertight seal. Now that the center strips and the dripcaps are in place, the rest of the roofing will go quite rapidly.

The roofing is now in full stride. As I was shooting from the third floor of the Science Building they were installing a new strip of copper roofing. I zoomed down to the site to get the entire sequence on chip.

First a new layer of protective paper is laid down and tacked into place with special non-corrosive nails. No iron must touch the copper or we will get a corrosion reaction between the dissimilar metals. (I'm a chemist, remember.)



The long strips of copper have special flanges build into each edge at the Four C's Sheet Metal plant in Clovis. They are designed to mate together and make a watertight seal. The lower portion of the sheet is bent down over the edge of the roof and inserted into the waiting flange of the dripcap edging. At the top of the roof the excess copper is trimmed off. Finally, special fasteners are used to attach the copper to the roof. There are no holes put into the copper itself.

Once all the roofing is in place, a crane will be brought in so the special roof ridge capping can be riveted onto all the exposed edges. The copper is far too slippery for the roofers to walk on it. At that point the roof will be absolutely watertight.

The picture on the lower right was taken at the rear of the building. It shows more detail of the waiting edge flanges that will receive the remaining roofing over the next few days.



Down on terra firma we find Zumwalt Construction's premier finisher Chano Martinez installing the columns in the Downing Planetarium lobby. The granite plinths have been grouted into place; they form the bases for the columns and match the granite tiles and edging in the lobby. The two columns next to the wall of the Star Theatre hide actual load-bearing structural steel. The inset shows the two halves of one of the columns glued together around a steel beam. The columns that Martinez is working on here are mainly decorative. Once they are in place, the glue dried, and the finish work completed, they will be painted to fit in with the lobby decor.

Today we see the South side of the Downing Planetarium roof has been covered with copper. The crew is proceeding with the East side.

If you look around the edges of the building, you can see the piles of old EIFS expanded polystyrene panels that are being removed today. The new panels will be here shortly, so work on the exterior walls will soon be back on track.

It's Monday morning, and the roofing crew has managed to add the edge caps and the top cap to the copper without bringing in a crane. Once one side was completed, they were able to work their way down the other sides, adding the ridge caps as they went. Once the first few feet of ridge cap was in place on all four sides, the top cap was riveted into place. I think there should have been some sort of ceremony as the very topmost point of the Downing Planetarium was completed.

In the image on the right the entire crew has safely descended from the slippery copper and is finishing the final edges of the Southeast corner of the roof.



On the Northwest corner of the building we can see that only a few more sections of the roof remain to be done.



Inside the planetarium, Chano Martinez is still working on the lobby finish work. Here he is sawing precise angles for the molding that runs around the bottom edges of the room.

Up on the Star Theatre catwalk, Steve White is showing me a bank of projectors he used for a test of images shown right through dome. It worked just fine. In this picture the projectors are moved back a bit from the dome to allow space for the painting Steve has been doing up in the catwalk area. Every bit of exposed wood has now been painted flat black to avoid any reflections that might be seen from the inside of the auditorium.

The copper roof is completed. If you look carefully at the picture on the upper left, you can see Gerald Keyes from Four C's Sheet Metal doing a final walk around on the parapet. A bit of polishing here and there and some site clean-up are all that remain.

At the upper right you can see some detail of the ridge caps and a completed roof corner.

On the lower right we see the copper roof catching the rays from the late afternoon sun. At just the right angle we get quite a reflection. With a some rain and a little help from Valley air pollution, this roof will eventually take on its final green patina--a mixture of hydrated copper(II) carbonate and sulfate, for all the chemistry fans out there.

I said several times before that I wasn't going to do this, but here we are, on the roof. I couldn't very well chicken out and stay on the ground after Brandt Kehoe, Associate Provost and President of the Planetarium Committee readily agreed when Steve White asked us, "Do you want to see the roof?" (For security reasons, I won't reveal how we got up here, but I had grave doubts about getting back down again.)

In the picture on the upper right we see Steve next to the edge of the copper roof. You can see the seams where the copper sheets were put together. Everything seems very tight and neatly done.

We are standing on the South side of the building, right above the lobby. The roof is higher here than on the other sides to give maximum height to the lobby ceiling. A ladder is standing over on the side to get us down to the West side.



On the West side of the roof we see part of the HVAC system. That's Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning for those of you not familiar with construction-speak. On the right we see Brandt and Steve inspecting something on the upper part of the outer wall. At their feet is one of the all-important roof drains. Water from the copper roof collects in this heavily sealed area and drains down to the outside through pipes inside of the building.

And yes, I did manage to get back down again without hurting myself or landing on anyone important.

The Star Theatre has all of its wall lighting and exit signs wired in and powered up. Click on the image for a more detailed look at this panorama. On the floor we see the last bit of carpet being laid by the workers from United Carpet. Carpet has already been installed in the office, the prep room and in the resource room. This means our floor coverings are complete.

Out in the lobby, Troy Horne points out the position of the spot from the window slit late in the afternoon. The time stamp at the edge of the picture gives the exact time and date.

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