PPG DURANAR^® powder coating was used on the newly redesigned Pier 17 at South Street Seaport in New York City, making it the first application of the coating in a challenging marine environment.

New York-based ShoP Architects specified PPG Duranar powder coating for Pier 17’s curtain wall for two primary reasons. First, the product is manufactured with a solvent-free, low-VOC (volatile organic compound) formulation that will enable the project to earn credit toward Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Second, PPG was able to offer a long-term warranty for film integrity, chalk and color fade for all coated metal extrusions on the building’s curtain wall. Pier 17 is located on the East River, roughly five miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

“The only way to fulfill the architect’s demand for a powder coating and long-term warranty in a moist, salt-laden marine environment was to apply it over our proven PPG Duranar primer,” said Scott Moffatt, PPG Market Manager, building products. “While one-coat powder systems typically perform well in normal environments, they are susceptible to failure in environments like South Street Seaport. It was very gratifying to offer a solution that met the architect’s challenging requirements.”

PPG also supplied PPG Duranar SUNSTORM^® coatings for 500 interior metal panels that are visible through a series of stacked 20-foot-tall light boxes that comprise much of the building’s façade. First coated with a pearlescent silver-gray PPG Duranar Sunstorm coating, the panels then were covered with a stencil and painted again with a bone-white PPG Duranar coating. The stencil created an appealing dot-matrix pattern that diffuses sunlight when it strikes the panels during the day and disperses a spray of multiple colors that are projected onto the building’s exterior surface at night.

PPG Duranar Sunstorm coatings, which are formulated with metal flake to create a brilliant mica appearance, were selected for the light-box application due to their reflectivity and ability to resist chalk and fade after long-term exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light.

PPG Duranar powder coatings are based on the same 70-percent polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) formulation as PPG Duranar liquid coatings, which have protected buildings in difficult performance environments around the world for more than 50 years.

All the metal extrusions for the Pier 17 curtain wall were produced by Keymark Corporation in Fonda, New York. Spectrum Metal Finishing in Youngstown, Ohio, which is a member of the PPG CAP CERTIFIED APPLICATOR PROGRAM AND DESIGN^® (PPG/CAP), applied the PPG Duranar coatings.

For more information about PPG Duranar coatings, visit www.ppgmetalcoatings.com.

By PPG