Coatings on One Dalton Place, a new skyscraper in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, have recently been completed using special colour-matching between the liquid and powder coatings provided by PPG.

Designed by Henry Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Gary Johnson of Cambridge Seven, the 61-story tower features PPG Duranar XL liquid and powder coatings in a metallic pewter tint that harmonizes with the building’s sleek glass exterior. The coatings were selected to finish the metal framing for the oversized windows, as well as the metal panels and capping used on the curtainwall. PPG Duracron coatings were used on the interior window frames and decorative panels.

Durapaint Industries, a PPG certified applicator based in Ontario, Canada, applied the coatings.

“One Dalton Place was a difficult project to finish due to the challenge of color matching liquid and powder coatings across multiple metal building components,” said Elio Zarlenga, president, Durapaint Industries. “The varying thicknesses of the window frame extrusions and the extreme thickness of the curtainwall panels made it hard to maintain color consistency, as the curing parameters for these components constantly had to be adjusted. Fortunately, we were able to match colors effectively from the beginning to the end of the project with two paint lines and state-of-the-art equipment.”

Zarlenga said PPG was critical to the success of the project. “We recommended to the architect that they allow PPG to re-tint the colors that had been initially created for the project,” he said. “PPG helped us tremendously in reformulating the colors and matching the liquid and powder tints and doing it quickly. This kept our customer from having to delay the project.”

PPG Duranar coatings are based on 70% polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) resin supplemented by proprietary PPG resins and pigments. Due to their exceptional durability and broad color palette, PPG Duranar coatings have been used on landmark buildings around the world for more than 50 years. These include the Louvre Pyramid, which was designed by Henry Cobb’s long-time business partner I.M. Pei.

PPG Duranar XL coatings were specified for One Dalton Place because of their ability to retain color and gloss and to resist corrosion in aggressive seacoast environments like Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. The coatings are available as three- and four-coat systems with a patented primer, color coat, clear topcoat and optional barrier coat.

The tallest residential tower in New England, One Dalton Place contains 215 luxury guest rooms in a five-star hotel and 161 luxury condos, all of which are operated by Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences.