The American Uniform Co. building in Cleveland, Tenn., sat empty for more than a decade before local leaders developed a new plan for the 271,000-sq.-ft. space: turn the derelict manufacturing facility into a 21st-century training hub. Now, students from the surrounding Bradley County have a place to explore technical trades and gain community college credit. The center’s exterior draws heavily on industrial themes, with architectural metal panels providing a factory-era complement to the adjacent masonry cladding.
The American Uniform facility had been one of the county’s largest employers when its owners shut the doors in 2006 to move production offshore. Bradley County officials bought the building, along with a surrounding 13 acres, in 2017, seeing its promise as a home for a program to introduce students to careers that didn’t depend on a traditional four-year college degree. Now the facility has training capacity for advanced-technologies manufacturing, health sciences and mechanical/electrical/plumbing building trades, among other options.
While the school’s interior is filled with the kinds of high-tech equipment graduates could encounter in their future jobs, the exterior pays homage to the industrial past in appearance and massing. A two-story brick-clad structure might once have housed a lobby and office space for the former mill’s operations. It features a dramatic entry portico covered by bronze-toned metal panels that give the appearance of a slab of COR-TEN steel (similar panels are mounted over exterior staircases). The main body of the school extends beyond, wrapped in neutral zinc-toned panels in two different corrugated-style profiles, referencing the industrial and agricultural heritage of Bradley County and its surroundings. Architects with the Chattanooga firm Artech, working with installers from Nashville’s Apex Group Tennessee, selected PAC-CLAD panel systems from Petersen for this job. Specifically, the project incorporates 4,942 sq. ft. of the company’s 7/8” Corrugated panels and 10,284 sq. ft. of their Highline M1 panels – both in a Zinc finish, along with 1,408 sq. ft. of Flush panels in Medium Bronze. All were fabricated from 24-gauge steel.
Editors: If photos are published the following credit is required: Photos: hortonphotoinc.com
