i miss the old looking dome i was loking forward to a new white one not a lead one
Getting the lead out
By: Ian Tizzard
Winnipeg Free Press
Dec 13/2008
"One of the great things about this building was the integrated whole of terra cotta from top to bottom," said project architect Wins Bridgman. But this summer, the building's terra cotta dome was covered with lead plating to solve a leakage problem that surfaced as long ago as the 1930s, when the original terra cotta was replaced. That work, however, didn't stop cracks from reappearing on the dome.
Terra cotta, a relatively new building material in the early 1900s, helped Winnipeg aspire to greatness in its architecture. Builders replicated styles of old-world stone buildings with moulded ceramic at a fraction of the cost. People expected a lot of this fired mix of clay and crushed brick, but it didn't have enough give for every use.
"Terra cotta on a steel-frame dome turned out to be a bad idea," said Bridgman. "The steel expands and contracts too much throughout the year. And in this case, the material can't live up to our expectations."
Nevertheless, Bridgman admitted a fondness for the revised dome.
"There's a kind of magic to the way the shape is telegraphed through the metal," said Bridgman, pointing out how the joints of the lead plate match the joints of the terra cotta underneath.
"First we had the terra cotta imitating stone. Now we have lead imitating the terra cotta. It adds another layer to the building's story."
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