Overview
BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc.
Varco Pruden Buildings, also written Varco Pruden or VP, is a brand of steel building systems operated by BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc., which is part of the global steel company BlueScope. Its headquarters are at 3200 Players Club Circle in Memphis, Tennessee. The company offers pre-engineered metal buildings, hybrid steel buildings that combine pre-engineered and conventional steel, and retrofit reroof and wall systems.
The product lines are roofing, walls, structural framing and insulation systems. The roofing line includes the SSR standing seam roof. The company states that more than 750 builders across the country make up the VP builder network. It also publishes VP Command, proprietary software used for design, pricing and engineering.
The Panel Rib roof panel, covered in the library as the Panel Rib Roof 2014 profile, is a purlin-bearing edge roof panel. The panel is 36 inches wide and has a rib height of 1 3/16 inches in the specification table, with 7/8-inch minor ribs. It is made in 26, 24 and 22 gauge and is fastened with exposed fasteners. The sidelap is engineered with an anti-siphon groove. The minimum slope is 1/2:12. Finish options are acrylic-coated Galvalume or KXL, and a fiberglass blanket insulation option is available.
The Panel Rib roof system is tested to UL 60 and UL 90 wind uplift, ASTM E1646 water penetration and ASTM E1680 air leakage. The manufacturer lists a 10-year standard weathertightness warranty, with special requirements for additional mastic and fasteners, and a 25-year finish warranty. A wall version, Panel Rib Wall, is a single-skin metal wall panel, and a reverse-rolled version of the profile is sold as the RPR panel.
The markets named on the company’s website are agricultural, automotive and transportation, breweries and wineries, municipal and government, commercial and offices, civic and community, distribution and warehouse, education, energy and utilities, hangars and aviation, healthcare, manufacturing and industrial, places of worship, retail and dining, sports and recreation, and storage. A mission-critical segment serves data center developers.
Relevant manufacturer history
Varco Pruden traces its start to 1948, when R.G. Varner Products was founded and Bob Varner completed his first steel building in Stephens, Arkansas. In 1950 Clark Prudhon founded Pruden Products Company in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, which delivered its first steel building frames in 1955. Varner Steel produced its first rigid frame building in 1959 and was renamed Varco Steel, Inc. in 1962.
In 1968 Fuqua Industries acquired Varco Steel and Pruden Products, forming Varco Pruden Buildings. Dominion Bridge acquired the company in 1971, and the headquarters moved to Memphis, Tennessee, that year. The Players Club Circle site opened in 1997. Later owners were AMCA, which acquired Stran-Steel in 1983, The LTV Corporation in 1997, Grupo IMSA of Monterrey, Mexico, in 2001, and BlueScope Steel Limited in 2008.
VP Command software was released in 1992, with a Windows version in 1999, and VP University was established in 2000. In 2018 the company expanded into conventional and hybrid steel buildings, and VP Command added BIM and Revit integration. Since 2024 it has been an AIA Collaboration Partner.
