Can You Name This Building? Hint: Snapchat is huge here.

When the original building first opened in 1893, 26 years after the end of the civil war, if you wanted to pass a note to someone you had to write it on paper. You only had to learn the capitals of 44 states because that’s all there were. Benjamin Harrison was president and people got around by buggy and by foot. The South was segregated — only whites were admitted into this institution until it merged with Lemon Street High School in 1967.

Now it’s ranked as one of the best in the country. It’s in a new location (its sixth), has a gorgeous roofing system (if we may say so ourselves) and hosts more than 2,000 students during the school year. Need another hint? Patrick Ewing, Jr., Joanne Woodward and Alan Ball all graduated from here.

Did you guess the building? It’s…

Marietta High School

Marietta High School is one of dozens of schools that Sentry Roof has roofed in our 30+ year history. It’s a huge property with many different roofs — it’s most distinctive one being the cone-shaped architectural metal roof that’s at the school’s main entry. The building actually has three different metal roof treatments: cone, dome and flat. They’re the blue sections you see in in the photo.

How we created the metal cone

The cone section needed to be custom made, as you might imagine. Each panel of metal had to be fabricated to the same precise measurements, which tapered from wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, to achieve uniformity and fit like pieces of a single pie. You can’t buy metal panels that are pre-cut like that!

We created the roof design on a CAD system then cut each metal panel at our shop in Norcross, GA. Both sides of the panel needed to be cut to create the taper, and we needed to cut dozens of identical pieces. To make sure the installation went according to plan, we field-verified all of the dimensions and created precisely measured guidelines at the cone’s top and bottom circumferences. These guidelines identified where the stop and start of each piece of metal should fall. The result? A perfect fit — and a beautiful, uniform, leak-free metal cone roof.

The barrel roof process

The barrel roof called for an entirely different approach. This type of metal roof is much more common so we were able to do the fabricating on site using a machine called a roll former. The roll former creates the metal’s barrel curve and raises seams in the metal at the same time. Flat metal from a roll goes in. Curved metal with seams for installation comes out. We used a crane for placement.

Blue Devils blue

The flat metal roof on the front part of the building was straightforward but, like the other metal sections, it was custom because of its color. It was painted a specific Pantone blue — Marietta High School Blue Devils’ blue. One of the most unique features of an architectural metal roof is you can choose a custom color. It’s not the cheapest way to go but you can do it, and you can also use cool paints to help manage solar heat.

From elementary schools to universities, public schools to private institutions, Sentry has a strong track record of successful installation and re-roofing projects within this industry. We enjoy these projects and have a lot of experience working with cities, counties, townships and governing boards while coordinating with other trades and meeting strict deadlines. We’re glad to have been brought into the Marietta High School project in 2003 by Archer-Western.

Here are some more details about this project.