A Face-lift: Travertine Cladding and Paver Repairs

摘要

Repairing thin travertine stone panels on a 30-year-old, 22-story building, while minimizing the possible negative aesthetic impact, presents many different challenges for design professionals. This article describes the repairs performed on the travertine exterior wall panels of the Capital One Plaza building located in Houston, Texas. The panels on this building presented distresses such as cracking and spalling. A comprehensive evaluation consisting of field observations, laboratory testing, and structural calculations was performed to understand the condition of the panels, design repairs, and to create a stone selection criteria required to maintain the building's original appearance. Custom-made mortar mix was designed and implemented to parge the exterior of the building and provides the owner the desired monolithic appearance to the travertine panels. Innovative panel connections and repairs were designed and constructed in order to provide supplemental support to the travertine panels.