Weatherhead School
Peter B. Lewis Building at the Weatherhead School of Management
Designed by Gehry Partners, the Peter B. Lewis Building is a five-storey facility named for the Cleveland philanthropist who donated $36.9 million for its construction. The decentralized design is intended to facilitate informal interaction among faculty and students.
The 22 ga stainless steel surface resembles an undulating, unbroken ribbon. Finished in #4 satin, the surface is more reflective than Angel Hair or GB-60 but less diffuse than a mirror-finish.
Using the Zahner proprietary flat seam system, each shingle was custom formed to create an interlocking, tessellated pattern.









Aerial view of Weatherhead School of Management
Photo courtesy of Bing Maps


Curvilinear forms of the Peter B. Lewis Building.

The stainless steel surface ripples reflections of the clouds.

Detail of the Weatherhead School of Management Peter B. Lewis Building

Reflective metal on the Peter B. Lewis Building

Detail of the Weatherhead School’s metal patterned roof
Learn more about the Weatherhead School
The Weatherhead School, completed in 2002, is a private business school at Case Western Reserve University located in Cleveland, Ohio.
In 2012, a new building for the Museum of Contemporary Art at Cleveland was designed and built on an adjacent site to the Peter B. Lewis Building at Weatherhead School. Designed by Farshid Moussavi Architects, the building’s facade was fabricated by Zahner.
Weatherhead School Further Reading
The Peter B. Lewis Building for the Weatherhead School at Case Western was met with critical acclaim. Below are some links to further reading about the building, as well as internal resources on the products and services that Zahner used to build the undulating facade.
- Modern Steel Award Winner Peter B. Lewis Building, June 2002
- Cleveland Museum of Art Exhibition Challenging Structure, 2002-2003
- New York Times How to Make a Frank Gehry Building, April, 2001
- Galinsky Peter B. Lewis Building, 2003