- Owner
- City of Salt Lake City
- Architects
- HOK, Inc.
- PPG Products
- PITT-TECH® Paint SPEEDHIDE® Paints and Primer PITT-GLAZE® PPG AMERLOCK® 2 PPG AMERCOAT® 68HS VOC PPG 90-374 Satin DTM Enamel MEGASEAL SL Epoxy Floor Coating PPG PERMACRETE® Primer
- PPG Colors
- Multiple Standard and Custom Colors (25-30 colors)
- Painting Contractor
- SME Steel Contractors, Salt Lake City
- General Contractors
- Big-D Construction, Salt Lake City / Holder Construction, Atlanta
PPG won the project due in part to its strong relationships with HOK, the architect and planner for the airport, as well SME Steel Contractors, which was selected to fabricate and erect all the building’s structural steel and provide other integrated construction services.
Steve Hedman, project manager, SME Steel Contractors, said PPG was a valued ally in helping to secure the project for his firm. “Mark prepared a list of paint products that would satisfy the specification, which we used to prepare our bid,” he explained. “With all the products and colors involved, that saved us a lot time. They were also great about providing product and color draws whenever we needed them.”
Between now and the project’s completion in 2020, PPG will supply SME with eight different PPG paint and coatings products designed to protect and finish up to six different types of surfaces. They include Amercoat and Amerlock coatings for structural steel; Pitt-Tech coatings and PPG satin direct-to-metal enamel for steel framing, Speedhide interior and exterior block-fill for masonry block; and Megaseal self-leveling epoxy for flooring surfaces.
SME believes it will have as many as 25 painters and staff on site when the project reaches peak activity.
Project Background
One of the country’s most complex construction projects is underway in Utah. The replacement of the existing Salt Lake City Airport terminal and the addition of two South concourses, which began in 2014 and won’t be completed until 2020, will create 78 gates in 1.75 million square-feet of new space for an airport that has grown into North America’s 25th busiest.
While there are many astounding facts and figures associated with a construction project of this scope, one of the most amazing is that virtually every drop of paint needed to cover the airport’s architectural and high-performance surfaces will be matched, mixed and delivered out of single PPG PAINTS store in downtown Salt Lake City.
Mark Attridge, business development manager, is among those coordinating the project for PPG PAINTS. “The size and scale [of this project] is one of the largest we’ve ever encountered,” he said, “but as far being able to handle it, we definitely have the warehouse space, the products and the people to be able to handle everything they need as they need it.”
Coloring a Canyon
Perhaps the signature element of the new Salt Lake City Airport terminal is a cavernous interior space that has been dubbed “the Canyon.” In addition to housing security screening areas, shops, restaurants and dining facilities, the open, football field-sized concourse will feature a large-scale sculpture by award-winning artist Gordon Huether.
Covering the length of the Canyon walls and depicting Utah’s native red rocks, mountain peaks, lakes, and clouds, the sculpture will be illuminated by floor-to-ceiling window during the day and complemented throughout its length by a variety of earth-toned finishes connecting passengers to the airport landscape.
Drywall, metal doors and other painted surfaces throughout the Canyon will be decorated with more than 25 different custom-mixed PPG PAINTS colors specified by HOK’s team of designers and decorators.
According to Attridge, most of the Canyon’s interior will be finished in one main color, with approximately 10 to 15 accents colors chosen for specific areas, and six to eight more selected to recreate airline logos.
The interior palette, which includes nearly a dozen hues from the PPG VOICE OF COLOR® collection, was selected by HOK’s designers from a range of paint manufacturers. Color-matching and order fulfillment for each of the paints is taking place at PPG PAINTS retail hub in downtown Salt Lake City.
“As the general contractor releases various sections of the terminal from the subcontractors to painters, SME places paint orders with us based on the colors and estimated quantities provided in the original spec,” Attridge explained. “After that, the colors are mixed to order at our PPG PAINTS store and each batch is quality-checked; then the entire order is placed on pallets and sent to the job site application by SME’s painting crews.”
Attridge said PPG will produce three to four colors per week during the early stages of the project but expects that to increase to eight to nine colors per day as the project nears completion. Lead time to mix and batch each color is 90 minutes, and PPG is set up to deliver products to the site up to four times each day.
What's Next
Despite the size and scope of the project, Attridge said PPG is equipped to handle it comfortably. “The type of surfaces that are out there on this project are the majority of what we’ve already done for 99 percent of the commercial projects that we work on,” he said. “PPG has a full line of products that are already designed for these projects, so it’s not really a matter of having the right product or having to deal with new surfaces; they’re all surfaces that are familiar. The size and scale are really the only difference.”
Phase one of the project, which includes the main terminal, two South concourses and the gateway area, is expected to consume nearly 30,000 gallons of PPG PAINTS and high-performance coatings. PPG PAINTS also will supply all coatings for the second phase of $3.6 billion project, which includes a new 477,000-square-foot North Concourse, as well as a 1.7 million-square-foot parking garage currently under construction.
Attridge says that, in addition to the airport terminal project, PPG PAINTS is working on several other major project in the Salt Lake City area, where they have a strong reputation for quality and performance with the local painters and construction community. “We have the products everybody is looking for that work well. We have the personal service that everyone is looking for as well, and well-educated people that know how the products work and can help out and solve problems as they arise,” he explained.