Lambert's main terminal gets a shiny, new roof

ST. LOUIS As Bill Miller stepped out of a cab on Monday afternoon at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, he paused to examine the shiny new roof over the check-in area at Terminal 1.

Looks like a new penny, Miller said, before rushing to catch a flight.

If Miller were to return to St. Louis in a year, he might not recognize the copper top on the terminals famed vaulted concrete roof.

By then, the metal is expected to have turned a burnished brown, one of about a dozen color stops on an odyssey of oxidation that, in 25 years or so, is destined to end in a soft-green patina.

Workers have installed the solid copper roof on three of the terminals four distinctive domes that were designed by Minoru Yamasaki and completed in 1956. The re-roofing is expected to be completed by years end.

The previous roof was also made of copper, and it held up pretty well, airport spokesman Jeff Lea said Monday. At 60 years old, it was well past its life expectancy. And it did have leaks. A cost-benefit analysis found that it was too hard to maintain and its life had expired.

The $6.7 million replacement is part of a $70 million face-lift at the airport.

The roof work started in April when the old copper covering was removed, along with insulation and a subdeck of rotting wood.

The new material is called CopperPlus. It was developed by Heyco Metals and features a core of stainless steel that is metallurgically bonded with two layers of copper.

Its a high-tech, architectural metal that we expect will outlast the previous roof, Lea said.

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Lambert's main terminal gets a shiny, new roof