Oh boy! The wrapping is stripped off the Court House Dome

By David F. Rooney

The wrapping has finally been stripped off of the historic Provincial Court House roof and dome. Now take a deep breath before you behold it’s brand-new look. It’s different… really different.

Here are some photos to set the visual context:

Here's what the court house looked like when work began last year to repair the roof and dome. Despite an initial recommendation by the Heritage Commission that it be repaired with real copper City Council got twitchy about the cost — about $200,000 — and opted to use a plastic polymer with a copper verdigris-like colour called cool mint. Revelstoke Current file photo
Here’s what the court house looked like when work began last year to repair the roof and dome. Despite an initial recommendation by the Heritage Commission that it be repaired with real copper City Council got twitchy about the cost — about $200,000 — and opted to use a plastic polymer with a copper verdigris-like colour called cool mint. Revelstoke Current file photo
Then, last spring, workers discovered that the there was so much lead paint on the roof that the repair job originally estimated to cost $200,000 suddenly ballooned to $375,000. For that amount of money the City might well have afforded a completely copper roof. Revelstoke Current file photo
Then, last spring, workers discovered that the there was so much lead paint on the roof that the repair job originally estimated to cost $200,000 suddenly ballooned to $375,000. For that amount of money the City might well have afforded a completely copper roof. Revelstoke Current file photo
Then, Tuesday morning, December 17, workers stripped the wrapper off the dome. All of the scaffolding obscures the colour, which is sort of close to the true verdigris colour you'd find on oxidized copper. There's a clearer view in the next image, followed a photo of a copper roof on a building in Montreal. David F. Rooney photo
Then, Tuesday morning, December 17, workers stripped the wrapper off the dome. All of the scaffolding obscures the colour, which is sort of close to the true verdigris colour you’d find on oxidized copper. There’s a clearer view in the next image, followed a photo of a copper roof on a building in Montreal. David F. Rooney photo
Here's a clearer view of the dome. David F. Rooney photo
Here’s a clearer view of the dome. David F. Rooney photo
This true verdigris roof is on Montreal's Hotel Dieu. This image was taken in 2006 by Vladimir Sedach was copied from Wikipaedia. As you can see the colour of the real copper verdi gris is more intense than the colour used on the Court House's rubber roof.
This true verdigris roof is on Montreal’s Hotel Dieu. This image was taken in 2006 by Vladimir Sedach was copied from Wikipaedia. As you can see the colour of the real copper verdi gris is more intense than the colour used on the Court House’s rubber roof.

In 2011 City Council was told that there was a serious leakage problem on the rook of the Provincial Court House. The municipal Heritage Committee recommended that real copper sheeting to used to make the repairs

At the time,City Councillors had budgeted $300,000 for the project and it put the roof repair job out to tender including both the installation of an elastomeric membrane and the copper replacement option. An elastomeric membrane is an acrylic membrane that would coat the existing copper roof, sealing the areas that are deteriorating. An elastomeric membrane would cost about $150,000 and would last about 20 years. A new copper roof was originally estimated to cost about $313,000 but would last at least 80 years, which was the length of time the original roof lasted before it required repairs in the 1990s. However, the actual cost of an all-copper roof was later estimated to be between $313,000 and $650,000. The City had also received $50,000 towards this project from the Columbia Basin Trust.

The choice seemed clear — go with the rubber roof.

But then a decades-long buildup of toxic lead paint was revealed. That rocked Council when it was revealed that fixing that would cost the court house dome project an additional $175,000.

Heritage Commission Chairman Mike Dragani said the colour was as close as they could come to a true verdigris. In any event, he said, the City can — sometime down the road — replace the rubber on the roof, perhaps even with real copper.

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