Function Comes First at Chamberlin's New Houston Address

Chamberlin Roofing and Waterproofing has a new roof over its head. The flow and carefully designed work areas at 7510 Langtry, Chamberlin’s new Houston address, exemplifies the company’s commitment to efficiency and productivity. Likewise, the standing seam roof atop the building is an excellent example of the company’s roofing capabilities as well as inspiration for its architectural flair.

In late 2002, Chamberlin partnered with Powers Brown Architecture to begin programming and designing the 18,000 square foot office and warehouse facility. The process began with discussions of how the inner workings of the facility could best suit the needs of the Chamberlin team. The end result is a functional office space based on an understanding of how people and departments at Chamberlin interact. In fact, operations and estimating teams have had no problem settling into their new “home.”

Function is king throughout the office. Individual offices are sandwiched between the sales and estimating departments. Roof Maintenance and Leak Repair have their own area, as do general administrative offices. Common areas such as bathrooms, the kitchen and digitized estimating room are located at the building’s center, convenient to the entire staff. Operations areas are strategically placed for accessibility from the warehouse, as superintendents and warehouse staff have a lot of interaction with the operations team. The operations training room is also adjacent to the warehouse. Though it is utilized for all types of employee training, it is most often used by field operations crews.

Together with Powers Brown, Chamberlin arrived at an idea to separate the sales and operations team by creating a “bullpen” area for the roofing and waterproofing operations. It gives project managers plenty of space to spread out with plans and paperwork, as well as open accessibility to one another. This is important because they frequently share superintendents, staff, and equipment. The result has been outstanding.

Without exception the building was designed with function as the driving force, but it doesn’t lack in visual and architectural appeal either. In fact, the roof itself is a key element of the architectural design. What better opportunity to apply and display work of one of Chamberlin’s core divisions?

Special features include a standing seam roof that covers the top of the structure, then turns down the fascia and back underneath the soffits with metal panels down the side of the building. Inside, the sheet metal element is repeated with a continuous exposed ceiling through the lobby and conference room. Standing seam components are actually installed upside down in the lobby creating a steep slope and high-pitched ceiling. Craftsmanship is still alive and well at Chamberlin.

Additional Chamberlin self-performed work on the building includes a tapered roof system with a Firestone TPO white reflective roof membrane for added energy efficiency over the office area. Atop the 10,000 square foot warehouse portion of the building, a Firestone EPDM platinum series roof membrane was installed. Of course, Chamberlin also performed the sealant and waterproofing work on the building.

Many thanks to Powers Brown Architecture and Rosenberger Construction for a job well done.