Eagle Harbor Market Building

General Contractor

PHC Construction
Bainbridge Island, Washington

Sheet Metal Contractor

Marvin Sheet Metal
Fife, Washington

Architectural Metal Company

Dissimilar Metal Design
Bremerton, Washington

As one disembarks from the Bainbridge Island ferry, the spectacular Eagle Harbor Market Building welcomes you with retail shops, restaurants, a bakery and an event center. It’s richly detailed copper patina, beautiful indigenous gardens, and nationally recognized sustainable architecture compliment the surrounding environment and invites visitors and community members to come shop, eat and play. Architecturally, copper was chosen for the exterior cladding to provide distinctive color and texture to the building’s massing. The copper material is envisioned as a “wrapper,” open on the ends, sitting atop a concrete plinth. The copper suggests a natural and textural juxtaposition with the building’s horizontal ironwood laths and elegant concrete base.

The Market Building was designed to be a sophisticated and distinctive neighbor to the adjacent Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, the most prominent building on the site. The use of copper as a cladding material created an interplay of exterior volumes between the Market Building and the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. The desire for low maintenance, longevity, elegance and distinctive appearance made copper an obvious choice. After fabrication, the panels were sent to a local architectural metals company that applied a patina. Panels were cut to a 5-foot uniform length to facilitate handling without damage and joints were staggered.

Field panels turn the corners and windows in a single piece. Coping is also one piece secured with continuous 18-gauge stainless steel cleats. All sills are one piece stainless steel that integrates with the copper siding. The 4,500 square feet of copper siding is 20-ounce material fabricated in repeating vertical flat seam panels of three different heights and coursed to provide a random appearance. The 26-1/2” coverage area from coil stock was fabricated into 10”, 13-1/4” and 16-1/2” tall panels to maximize utilization. These were installed in rain screen fashion over 18-gauge stainless steel girts  (to minimize the risk of corrosion) 16-inch on center. Non-combustible insulation behind the girts provide continuous exterior insulation to the steel framed walls eliminating thermal leaks. The end result is an architecturally stunning and sustainable building. The patina will continue to deepen and glow proving that copper is one of the few materials that looks better with age.

Architectural Category: Flat Seam Roofs and Walls