GREENSBORO, North Carolina

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of historic sit-in protests at the Greensboro Woolworth store in 1960, the International Civil Rights Center & Museum was opened in 2010. Located in a portion of the F.W. Woolworth building where the sit-ins occured, the complex includes 30,000 square feet of exhibit space and teaching facilities.

Low-VOC coatings were specified, which made Hopkins Paint & Wallcovering of Brown Summit, N.C., a perfect fit for the project. Owner Wallace Hopkins has been in the painting industry for more than 30 years. As a partner in S&H Paint & Wallcovering, he was part of North Carolina's first LEED Platinum certified hotel project at the Proximity Hotel.

For the museum, Hopkins chose the low-VOC ProGreen 200 line. "We use a lot of Sherwin-Williams' ProMar 200 eg-shel," he says. "When the job calls for it, we go with ProGreen. It has a lot of the same application properties as ProMar 200 and we really like the finish and the touch-up."

They used everything from the ProGreen 200 Primer to flat, low sheen, eg-shel and semi-gloss topcoats. "We especially like using the low sheen when there are less than ideal drywall conditions," Hopkins says. "It helps to cover up some of those bad sheet rock problems."

Pro Industrial Pre-Catalyzed Water Based Epoxy, a highly durable, washable single-component epoxy, was used in rest rooms. Waterborne Dryfall Flat was applied on the ceilings.

The new museum is part of the Downtown Greensboro Historic District and is drawing thousands of visitors a year to the city. "This landmark stands as a physical testament to the courage, sacrifice and commitment those four young men demonstrated 50 years ago," says museum chairman and co-founder, Melvin "Skip" Alston.

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