Patterson Whittaker Architectural Profiles

05/29/2026

Replacing damaged wood on a historic facade is not as simple as swapping in new wood.

Historic buildings need to be preserved. But they’re also just that: historic. They’re older, which means that they are more likely to have issues and, eventually, require repair. We want to preserve these buildings, but we also want to make sure that the materials that we use to replace damaged...

05/24/2026

Keystones have been locking arches into place for centuries. Today they are mostly decorative -- but that does not mean they have to be made from stone.

Keystones hold a special place in architectural history. These wedge-shaped stones sit at the apex of an arch, traditionally serving as the final piece that locks all other stones into place and allows the arch to bear weight. For centuries, keystones were essential structural components — without...

05/18/2026

Multi-unit residential developers face a specific challenge that single-property architects rarely have to think about: repetition. When your design calls for identical column covers, cornices, and window surrounds across 40 units, the math on precast concrete gets ugly fast. Lead times stretch, shipping costs compound, and installation crews are dealing with heavy material across dozens of identical applications. Our blog post walks through exactly why cement-coated EPS has become the material of choice for this type of project.

Most multi-unit residential developments have a problem. The architect designs a beautiful facade with columns flanking each entryway, cornice details along the roofline, and window surrounds that give the building character. Then the estimator runs the numbers. Precast concrete for 40 identical col...

05/13/2026

Natural stone looks permanent. It is not always.

Durability and longevity are a concern among most architects. But even the most seasoned architects sometimes get it wrong. For example, we were recently called to fix a project for a property that had been renovated only a few years ago. The property used limestone – a natural stone that the orig...

05/07/2026

If you are building or renovating near the coast, the material choices you make for exterior architectural details matter more than most architects realize. Salt air, moisture, and temperature swings accelerate deterioration in ways that are not always obvious until years later -- often after the warranty has expired and the contractor is long gone. PW Profiles has a detailed breakdown of how different materials hold up in these conditions.

Architects designing projects in coastal regions or high-humidity climates face unique challenges. Salt air, moisture, and temperature fluctuations can dramatically impact material performance and longevity. Traditional materials like natural stone, precast concrete, and wood each react differently....

05/02/2026

Wood trim rots. Patterson Whittaker profiles do not.

Wood trim has been a go-to for decades. It’s familiar, it cuts cleanly, it paints well, and most carpenters can work with it in their sleep. But familiarity has a way of obscuring cost — and when you start adding up what wood trim actually demands across a full project, the number is rarely as [...

03/30/2026

Our products include top-slope and drip-edge contouring engineered to divert rainwater away from the building face. This protective detail, combined with surface-applied installation that doesn't pe*****te membranes, helps buildings resist moisture infiltration far better than traditionally fastened trim.

PW manufactures a wide variety of architectural profiles for both interior and exterior building applications. PW products generally consist of a layer, or layers, of specialty surface top-coatings applied over reinforced, expanded polystyrene (EPS) cellular foam cores. PW products are used in both....

03/25/2026

Cement-coated foam products exist from other manufacturers, but not all are created equal. Many are heavy, difficult to ship without chipping, expensive to install, and limited in the scale of shapes they can produce. Our lightweight, flexible, resilient coatings and large-scale capabilities set us apart.

03/21/2026

Why don't wood moldings work well for large-scale exterior architectural details? Wood rots. It expands and contracts with moisture. It requires constant maintenance. And building complex profiles from wood requires expensive labor to assemble multiple layers. Cement-coated EPS solves all of these problems.

03/16/2026

One of the biggest advantages of PW products over precast concrete: installation speed. Our materials can often be manufactured, delivered, and installed before custom precast products are even formed. Faster timelines mean lower costs and earlier project completion.