Corporate Campus Adds Rural Appeal with Standing-Seam Metal Roof

87,000 sq. ft. of the panels in a Graphite finish were used in the project

Bandwidth Inc. Headquarters exterior — Image courtesy of hortonphotoinc.com

At a time when many corporate campuses are being converted to other uses, one North Carolina tech leader recently moved into its own new 40-acre headquarters property, doubling down on its traditional, office-based work culture. This new development also is filled with a number of amenities designed to make office life appealing. Along with a stylish, five-story office building, these amenities include onsite daycare and an event space housed in several low-rise structures with a more rustic feel, looking back to the region’s rural heritage through the use of reclaimed-lumber cladding and traditional standing-seam metal roofs.

Among the biggest trends in the corporate campus sector is the transformation to other purposes. In 2023, data from research firms Newmark and CoStar showed more than 15.2 million square feet of office space being converted to logistics use. For the communications technology company Bandwidth, however, a new corporate campus in its hometown of Raleigh, N.C., was seen as the best way to encourage a culture of innovation.

Employees with young children are being supported in this move with the inclusion of a purpose-built Montessori-based daycare center designed in a streamlined-barn style by architects with Gensler’s Raleigh-Durham office. A separate meeting building features a similar profile. The cladding for both is 200-year-old lumber salvaged from an old mill, while the roofs feature standing-seam metal panels, like those traditionally used in agricultural buildings for at least the past century.

Designers, along with the installation team from Raleigh-based Baker Roofing Services, specified PAC-CLAD Tite-Loc Plus panels from Petersen for these buildings. In all, 87,000 sq. ft. of the panels in a Graphite finish were used in the project. These panels have a concealed-fastener floating clip system to allow for thermal expansion and contraction, and feature 180-degree seams for even better structural performance and wind uplift resistance.