Efficient façade boosts green rating for Orlando building

"The façade is clad with 60,000 square feet of our proprietary unitized curtain wall system in three designs. There are areas that are fully captured; areas that are two-sided, vertical structural glazed; and areas that are four-sided structural glazed." —Dave Brasch, general manager, Orlando office, Harmon Inc., Minneapolis.

The basics: Reliable Plaza, Orlando (Fla.) Utility Commissions' new 10-story, $40 million, customer and administrative center, with an energy-efficient exterior, was designed to meet Gold-level requirements from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. It is expected to be Florida’s first building to achieve the Gold rating, according to a release from Harmon.

The players: Architect, Baker Barrios Architects Inc., Orlando, Fla.; contract glazier, Harmon Inc., Minneapolis; interior and exterior glass fabricator, Oldcastle Glass, Santa Monica, Calif.; general contractors, Skanska USA Building Inc., Parsippany, N.J.; JCB Construction, Orlando; engineering support, TLC Engineering, Houston; green building support, Commercial Design Services Inc., Altamonte Springs, Fla.

The glass and systems: Unitized curtain wall, thermally improved with 1-inch insulating units, clear low-emissivity glass, Oldcastle Glass solar-control SunGlass; ¼-inch ceramic frit spandrel glass; horizontal and vertical sunshades; 640 pieces of clear, laminated glass for interior office partitions to maximize daylighting.