Exhibition Place "Wallscape"

The towering skyline of Toronto, now a city with over seven million people, is about the furthest you can get from a natural horizon in Canada. Exhibition Place, a large and storied exhibition and convention center in the core of the city needed a solution to a problem and to achieve a goal.

One of their outdoors venues was plagued by the constant din of traffic of the very busy and very large urban boulevard immediately adjacent. The solution was some kind of sound barrier, but one that was pleasing and artistic. The second issue was that Exhibition Place had a mandate to advance the visual presence of pre-European culture in their architecture. These two objectives meshed nicely in a largescale artwork called “Mino Bimaadiziwin.”

Mino Bimaadiziwin is a life philosophy from native tribes of the area that can be loosely translated into, “Living The Good life,” a way of living in your culture and in your environment. The artists envisioned this in a steel façade that touched on the seven cornerstones of this philosophy. But, how to assure a long and trouble-free service life for this vision? The bare Corten steel creating the sky portion was self evident as the natural reddish bronze hue was what was desired, but what about the portions the artists wanted to be painted blue and green?

Painting over Corten can cause faster corrosion than even regular carbon steel. So, enter Hot-Dip Galvanizing, the amazingly effect life extender of steel. This time with a duplex paint coat over the zinc. Not only would Hot-Dip better protect the visible surfaces it would also protect the hidden and utterly unprotected inner surfaces.

First, the engineer and fabricator used the knowledge of the galvanizer to ensure the fabricated components were designed for optimized zinc immersion. Next, they specified an architectural zinc finish that reduced paint preparation work. Lastly, the sections were fabricated and carefully galvanized followed by the application of the duplex coatings to the desired hues.

The end result is a beautiful “wallscape” that enhances the venue both visually and orally. It also provides a look back geographically and culturally to a time far different than the modern urban vibe of a great metropolis.

Long lasting and amazingly cost effective, Hot-Dip successfully provided the corrosion solution to this unique artwork and all the challenges its creation entailed.