Union Station roof: Not what you think

By: Daily Blog//April 30, 2010//

Union Station roof: Not what you think

Daily Blog//April 30, 2010//

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The red roof on Portland’s historic Union Station helps make the building a local landmark. Everyone recognizes the trademark terra cotta tiles.

Or so they think. The tiles are actually tin.

“I don’t know many people who realize that,” said Steve Bartell, project manager with P&C Construction, the general contractor on a $4.3 million project to fix the roof and make other improvements to the station.

“Until we started looking through it, we thought it was clay tiles.”

So how do you replace such unusual metal tiles? You get lucky.

Bartell found original dies used to stamp the tiles into shape locked in a safe at Union Station. Pioneer Sheet Metal will use the original dies to replicate the originals.

“It will match exactly,” Bartell said.