Albright College, Reading PA

The situation

As we see a culture shift towards creating unique academic environments,  we can expect to see dorm residences like Exeter Hall at Albright college become more popular. The college felt strongly that the environment in which students work and study in impacts their quality of life and ability to perform well. In response to this, the college focused the building plans around a structure that looked professional and inspiring. Dr. Jacquelyn S Fetrow, Albright's president and professor of chemistry and biochemistry stated, "For us, exceptional residential living is really about success, happiness, and outcomes for today's students."

To achieve a clean yet visually inspiring look, the building was equipped with two different shades of cement panels for siding. These cement panels filled nearly the entire exterior of this 5 story building. The design was sharp, but they needed a way to secure and attach these panels so that the integrity of the design was not lost.

The solution:

Just down the road from where this dorm was being installed is SFS's Wyomissing, PA location. There, SFS manufactured and color-matched 40,000 of our TW-S-D12 fasteners and 7,000 SX3-D12 fasteners. The SX3's that were utilized are bi-metal; made of 304 stainless steel and a hardened carbon drill point.  SFS was proud to produce and install  these just down the road and support local for local business inititatives! The project is also unqiue in that it features SFS's color-match technology. This allowed the fasteners to blend in perfectly with the panels they were against. The panels look seamlessly attached, and the fasteners became vitrually invisible, creating the illusion of a completely flat wall.

The cement panels were pre-drilled but the metal required no pre-drilling as the fasteners are able to penetrate it. By combining the power of the drill point and the quality of the fastener, these fasteners made quick work of installing Albright College's new dorm. 

Project highlights

Client
Albright College

Main contractor
Perrotto Builders

Location
Reading, Pennsylvania

Product Used
TW-S-D12 fasteners
SX3-D12 fasteners

Project value
$9,000,000

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Albright Case Study Download