Glass design spans floors at Houston YMCA

The basics: The Tellepsen Family YMCA, Houston, a design-build project, partnered the architect, general contractor, glazier, glazing system manufacturer and glass fabricator. The building features YMCA lettering across the face of the curtain wall, spanning three floors. In addition, the design required a combination of vision glass, graphic dot patterned glass and spandrel glass. The glazing system required a curtain wall capable of spanning multiple floors, and minimizing horizontal sight lines. Meticulous coordination was required to assure graphic alignment within the curtain wall system, according to officials at Oldcastle Glass.

The players: Architects, Kirksey, Houston; general contractor, Tellepsen Builders, Houston; glazing contractor, Admiral Glass and Mirror, Houston; glass fabricator, Oldcastle Glass Commercial Projects Group, Wright City, Mo.; glazing system supplier, Oldcastle Glass Engineered Products, Terrell, Texas.

The glass and systems: Custom Pressure Bar Curtain Wall System with captured vertical mullions and horizontal butt-glazed (structural silicone glazed) mullions. 1-inch insulating glass units with with PPG Solarban 70XL low-emissivity coating and i-Glass decorative glass. i-Glass incorporates state of the art ink-printing technology, providing precise computer generated custom images. The insulating glass units were provided with a combination of custom graphic lettering and dot patterns on the No. 2 surface of the insulating unit.