Can You Name This Building? Hint: It's Curvy and Often the Centre of Attention

Maybe you’ve been to an event in the building on the right? Or maybe you’ve run into a mayor in the building on the left?

It’s a complex that’s located in the heart of the second most populated city in Clayton County and ten miles south of Atlanta. It sits on a 27-acre property and boasts an innovative, eye-catching design that was planned down to the smallest detail — which means it required some pretty hefty know-how to get the roof installed correctly. Sentry Roof completed the project in 2010 and since then thousands have had fun, learned things, and had decent workouts under those roofs. They have to follow new laws that were passed there, too!

The amphitheater was added later and hosts concerts, performances and movie nights … while giving attendees an excellent view of those amazing roofs!

Did you guess either of the buildings? They’re part of the….

Riverdale Town Centre

There aren’t many complexes like the Riverdale Town Center that give people a place to enjoy arts and entertainment and get a building permit all in one place. The City of Riverdale conducted studies to determine how it could best promote economic development and also a sense of community — this unique complex was developed based on the results.

The building on the left is Riverdale City Hall where official city business takes place. The building on the right is the Riverdale Centre, a 42,000 square-foot building that includes a gym (that doubles as a major events facility), a dance studio, fitness center, and other facilities the public can use.

Neither was easy to roof!

There are low-slope roofs … and then there are low-slope roofs that give “slope” a whole other meaning

Each of the several roofs that make up the two Riverdale Town Center buildings has a swooping curve to it. The curves don’t create any issues for the roofing system’s flexible PVC membrane (which similar to TPO, just with a different chemical makeup) but the insulation boards that go underneath the membrane are pretty rigid. Our crew had to gently bend the insulation boards to compel them to fit the arched decking of the roof. Fortunately, most of the arches were sloped softly enough so that the bending technique was possible, but some curves were just too curvy. We had to relief cut some boards so that they could attach to the decking properly.

Attention to detail creates beautiful results

If you look closely at the roofs, you’re able to see parallel lines that follow the line of the roof — they’re called standing seams. These are raised seams and are an aesthetic-only design feature that adds interest to the roof by calling attention to the curves and also giving the roof the appearance of being metal. We heat welded the seams in place after the roof was installed, as per the architect’s specifications. You can see them especially well on the Riverdale City Hall roof when you take the 360-degree virtual tour.

At Sentry, we like challenging new construction jobs like this one and we’re grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this impressive project. Our thanks to New South Construction for bringing us in on the project. And if you happen to attend an event or see a concert (or pay a parking ticket) at the Riverdale Town Centre, don’t forget to look up!

Here are some more details about this project.