Rutland Gutter Supply - Architectural Copper

Friday, February 05, 2010

Cupolas are a very popular architectural enhancement on top of horse barn roofs and riding arenas. Roof top cupolas are also popular features on homes, gazebos, pavillions, public buildings and businesses. A cupola may be built to be accessible from the inside and thereby provide a lofty perch for viewing pleasure of the surrounding area. Often such cupolas are encircled by a widows walk or roof deck railing. Usually cupolas are chosen for their heightened architectural interest and also to provide substantial ventilation to the roof, attic or building space below. Cupolas may be built in various shapes including circular, square, hexagonal and octagonal. Cupolas typically have a curved conical, bell-shaped or pyramidal domed roof and are often crowned with a ornamental roof finial perched at the very top. Cupolas may be constructed from a variety of materials with wood and metals being the most common. Among metals, rust-free aluminum and copper are the preferred material. Aluminum makes for a generally light weight, manageable cupola design and the aluminum is usually painted to color coordinate with the underlying building's wall and trim colors. Copper cupolas are most always left uncoated and provide the most elegant and distinguished appearance, weather beautifully, are the most maintenance-free, eco-friendly green choice, most durable and longest lasting of all cupolas. Cupolas provide a pleasing, very attractive elegance to any building while cupola ventilation serves as an excellent roof vent.

Rutland's architectural craftsmen hand made several custom large cupolas designed for a massive horse barn riding arena. Structural .063 aluminum was used, with large aluminum louvers in the four walls, a swooping bell-shaped pyramidal domed roof and topped with a finial ball and spiked cone. All joints or seams were TIG welded and polished, which provides the most strength, durability and refined, pleasing appearance. One very large cupola would perch in the center of the horse barn arena's expansive roof line and two slightly smaller cupolas would sit to either side of the larger one. The cupolas would help break up the roof line, provide a high degree of architectural interest and attractiveness and supply substantial ventilation of the underlying roof space. The cupola sides were painted a bay brown to coordinate with the stained wood walls of the riding arena and adjacent horse barns. The cupola's roof was painted hunter green to match the green metal roof on the horse barns. Below are pictures showing the progression of the cupola construction from structural framing to final installation shots on top the horse barn.

cupola TIG welded structural aluminum frame shown here during cupola construction
Cupola Structural Aluminum TIG Welded Frame - Polished Seams

cupola has large louver vents installed for roof or attic ventilation
Large Aluminum Louvers are Inserted Into Cupola Sides

cupola domed roof and roof finial are attached to finish cupola design
Domed Roof and Roof Finial Attached On Top of Cupola

aluminum cupolas finshed in two tone paint job pictured here
Cupolas Finished in Two-Tone Paint Job

roof cupola perched on top of metal horse barn roof shown
Cupolas Are Installed Top of Horse Barn Arena

horse barn cupola installed on metal horse barn roof in picture
Horse Barn Cupola Construction Project Completed

Obtain more information on roof top aluminum cupola designs and copper cupolas at Rutland Architectural Cupolas.

2/5/2010 11:42 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Widows Walk - Roof Deck Railing

An architectural widow's walk can be described several ways including: a balcony on a roof; a roof enclosure; roof railing; roof walk; roof fence; flat roof deck and railing; railed rooftop observation platform. A widow's walk, flat roof deck or observation platform on the roof of a house, enclosed by a railing or balustrade is sometimes formed by truncating the top of a hip roof. A widow's walk, roof walk or sometimes referred to as a captain's walk was typically found on a coastal house, originally designed as a lookout for observing vessels at sea. The name widows walk derived from the wives of fishermen or mariners, who would gaze out over the ocean, from their rooftop balcony watching for their husband's safe return. Tragically, the ocean would sometimes take the life of the seamen, leaving their wives as widows. Their widows would then frequently pace and gaze out to sea from their rooftop platform wishing beyond hope that their loved ones would miraculously still return home and thus the name widow's walk was coined. Beyond their use as viewing platforms, widows walks were also frequently built around the chimney of a residence, creating easy access or passage to the chimney.This was done to allow home owners, in the event of a chimney fire, to pour sand down their burning chimney, to hopefully prevent their house from burning down. Widows walks might also surround a cupola or turret projecting from a rooftop.Widow's walks can also be seen as a decorative architectural accent, distinctive and eye-catching on stately homes today, even on many homes far inland from the sea. Pictured below are sections of a widows walk made from pure copper. Depending on the layout of the roof platform to be enclosed, one to four railing sections might be used to enclose the roof deck forming a pen or enclosure.

Copper Widows Walk Roof Railing
widows walk roof balcony corner railing shown here

Decorative Widows Walk Corner Finial

widows walk roof enclosure railing end section pictured here

widows walk roof balcony deck corner section shown in this picture

widows's walk roof copper deck railing long copper work section shown here

Rutland's architectural copper work artisans crafted the widows walk seen in the pictures above from copper, hand forming the pieces and welding them together. The separate railing sections are designed to bolt together at the installation site and attach to the roof structure. View additional architectural copper work.