Cascade County Courthouse

Architect

A & E Architects, PC
Missoula, Montana

Consulting Architect & Sheet Metal Contractor

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.
Chicago, Illinois

Owner

Cascade County
Great Falls, Montana

The main body of the roof of Cascade County Courthouse is 107 squares of a rare 20-ounce copper batten seam roofing system. The restoration of this copper roof required 1,800 panels to be custom fabricated by Renaissance Roofing in Belvidere, Illinois. A roll-forming machine using coil stock was used to produce the 42” long panels, with an installed exposure of 36”. The installation of these panels required locking strips to be soldered to each panel, allowing the succeeding panel to be secured.

The copper batten seam system was installed utilizing traditional folding methods as adopted by the Copper Development Association and Revere Copper’s “Copper and Common Sense” guide. The lower section of the main roof and pocket areas total approximately 2,500 square feet, and incorporate an innovative design utilizing both fully soldered flat seam 20-ounce copper roof panels and built-in copper water diverters to direct the water flow to the internal drain system.

The tower dome roof has a flat-locked 20-ounce copper roofing system with the required Grace Underlayment and rosin paper. These panels were custom fabricated utilizing the original panels of the building as templates, and the drum beneath the dome was re-clad in 20-ounce copper that required extensive custom tooling to fabricate the intricate, curved ogee patterns within the wall and ceiling panel systems. The tower pedestal and the balcony roofs, also wrapped in or utilizing 20-ounce copper, were also restored during this project – with other restoration efforts including the cast iron around the drum of the tower, curved window sash and glass replacement, and the painting of these components.

This glorious restoration and replacement effort required nearly 1,700 man-hours to complete, utilizing over a whopping 55,000 lbs. of copper.