Styrofoam facades

[Veloise]

In yesterday's Freep (or was it the Snooze?) was an article describing the installation of styrofoam faux marble facades. Shades of the canopies & painted people for the Republican Convention!

Anyway, I'm sure we would all appreciate photos. Esp those of us in the state's 2nd largest city.

Thanks!

[wolverine]

Oh god, we haven't stooped to those levels again have we? Although it wouldn't be surprising. Makes me wish the Statler was around.

[Zissou]

Thats news to me. I havent heard of or seen anything like styrofoam. Ill be downtown most of tomorrow afternoon, I guess Ill have to look.

[Allan]

I haven't seen any styrofoam or faux marble.

[Allan]

You know, now that I'm thinking about it, the Park Apartments' new facade looks pretty tacky. I think that's about as close to styrofoam as you're going to get. Most of them are stone facades (I'm thinking of 1213, 1403, & 1520 Woodward).

[hood]

Are you talking about that stuff with a styrofoam base and they spray some hard coat over it? I hate that stuff.

[detroitfan]

This is story the photo is at the bottom I can't place the building, but there is a SB store in it so that should narrow it down a little

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...0364/1003/METRO

[Jasoncw]

"Bricklayer Rich Henry, as part of a crew revamping building facades, caulks between Styrofoam sheets meant to improve a storefront's look."

The caption for the last picture on the page.

I guess it will look nice long enough for the superbowl. Hopefully no one bumps into it the wrong way, because if it falls off, the media will probably pick it up. And then all the superbowl fans will start ripping all of our stryafoam facades down . But yea, if people found out it would look really bad. Even if someone saw most of the building restored, if they saw some of it was styrafoam...

[Jin Kim]

This is story the photo is at the bottom I can't place the building, but there is a SB store in it so that should narrow it down a little

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...0364/1003/METRO

I think that's the building on Congress and Shelby (next door to the Buhl building on Congress). I don't know the name. You can just make out the painted wall above Green Room salad bar in the background. You can also see the folding sign they put in front the of party store that's in that building.

I didn't think that was meant to look like marble, because, well... it doesn't. It looks like insulation, which I thought was odd for them to be sticking it on the exterior like that. I didn't realize they were going to leave it like that.

[Allan]

Oh ok...I know where that building is. It's on the SE corner of Congress & Shelby. I do remember seeing a foam facade being installed a few weeks ago on the West side of the building.

EDIT: Looks like Jin Kim got to it way before I did...I take too long to compose my posts, lol.

[hudkina]

I think it's just a temporary facade, at least in the sense that it's there until they can afford a better material (at least I hope so.)

[Zissou]

It has to be temporary. They did all the work required before you can put up a facade, I think they just ran out of time so instead of havine bright yellow building material they decided to go with styrofoam.

[wolverine]

Yeah, that stuff is EIFS, and it's found all over the downtown.... not just on the facade shown, but in permanent situations such as the Detroit opera house (facing GCP only, which looks like crap), club Bleu, and Park Apartments. Oh how klassy architecture has gotten. But yeah, it's basically a close cousin of styrofoam.

If we ever suggested using EIFS on our building projects here in architecture school, we'd have our heads cut off.

[andrew.w]

You know, now that I'm thinking about it, the Park Apartments' new facade looks pretty tacky. I think that's about as close to styrofoam as you're going to get.

Last time I walked by Park apartments (in August), it had some sort of flat white facade that extended up about two floors high. Has that since been replaced, or is that the new front?

[wolverine]

It was replaced with an even tackier EIFS facade. So tacky that it didn't warrant photographing for the Detroit like Woah series.

[Allan]

Yeah, the new facade is worse than the old one. It does have some Home Depot-style lighting at night though.

[wolverine]

Oh well, I'm sure non-architecture enthusiasts will appreciate it and hopefully move into that building. It does make it look like the folks there care about their building to some extent. I've never been inside, but the exterior's cry for maintenance gives a few good clues.

Oh, but then I was wrong about the Michigan Theater building. Kind of dirty on the outside, but really nice on the inside.

[monsoon]

EFIS is pretty ugly stuff. I've seen some wonderful looking building renderings where the end result was a horrible looking building because they used EFIS for the cladding. The architectural renderings never reflect this.

It's basically styrofoam that has layers of colored stucco like material sprayed on it to resemble much more expensive materials. It looks reasonable for a couple of years then mold will start growing in it and it is a constant maintenance issue. It also has the problem that if it isn't installed properly, it lets moisture through into the supporting structure and it begins to rot if it is made of wood. Because of this, some municipalities have banned it, but in most places it can still be used. I've seen some fairly garish looking colors used on EFIS surfaced buildings that were the result of attempting to resemble something expensive.

EFIS is a shortcut to cut costs and the end result often shows it.