G3: Industry insiders talk glass

Commercial

Joe Clabbers, president, National Glass and Metal Co., Horsham, Pa.

One of the most innovative projects we've been involved in recently is the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. This project was a collaboration with Rafael Vinoly Architects of New York City, and L.F. Driscoll Co. of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., the same team we worked with on the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. The focal point of the project is a 110-foot glass cube creating an eight-story central atrium in the middle of a five-story U-shaped building.

The design intent was for the open atrium curtain wall and supporting structure to be as light as possible in order to create a visual link between the various wings of the facility. Through an iterative design-build process with input from both design teams, and with the use of 3-D modeling software, the final curtain-wall design consisted of a very slender, 6-inch deep custom unitized curtain-wall system, with 5-foot wide by 17-foot high module sizes. The glass was 1-inch clear insulating units by Viracon, [Owatonna, Minn.], with a VE1-2M coating. The curtain wall hangs on a steel structure consisting of 1-inch thick by 13-inch deep by 30-foot long horizontal flat bars, spaced vertically every 17 feet, and hung from the roof trusses above, via a series of stainless steel tie rods.

We fabricated the curtain-wall units in our plant using fabrication drawings developed directly from the architect's 3-D model, without the need for traditional shop drawings. The four-side structurally glazed units were erected by crane onto the pre-cambered steel bars in a specific sequence to ensure the lightweight structure remained stable throughout the installation.

This was truly a collaborative process requiring faith and trust between the parties, and resulting in a very successful landmark project.

 Retail

Thomas Huff, president and CEO, Go-Glass Corp., Salisbury, Md.

Residential customers are still very selective about spending money on new projects.  We are finding creative ways to leverage existing products with a different twist to sell high-value projects on a tight budget. Recently, a customer requested an insulating unit with custom stained glass on one lite to personalize an addition to their home. The stained glass was reclaimed from a window that was discovered in the attic of their parents’ home.  Today, innovation is about creating something new and interesting out of something low-cost and unique.

Fabrication

Howard Haber, managing partner, W&W Glass LLC, Nanuet, N.Y.

What was old is new again.

In approximately 1971, the first all-glass Structural Glass System was installed (PPG TVS system). This system featured large, heavy glass mullions penetrating the face glass wall--like blades--and the face glass spanning between them, all held together by structural silicone. Since then, glass mullion technology has developed, as have the face glass substrates used in filling the gaps in between those mullions. Most new projects incorporating glass mullions or “fins” are built with those fins inside the envelope of the building and are closed in by various glass combinations, be it monolithic, laminated, double glazed insulated or a combination thereof. These installations continuously evolve via the use of high-performance soft coats either for additional insulation value or solar control or both.

One renovation project soon to be completed in Ottawa, [Ontario], the Canadian Museum of Nature has taken both the old technology of the TVS-type systems and the new technology of Pilkington Planar coated triple-glazed point-supported glazing and combined them to provide a unique solution to the designer's challenge. It replaces large opaque stone facades with large expanses of vision area for the museum displays and its patrons, while keeping the temperatures in the large area of coverage constant in the winter and summer. The project consists of a glass cube approximately 64 feet high, starting at 60 feet off of the ground. The total square footage is just under 9,700 square feet. The glass mullions are 19-millimeter Pilkington Optifloat clear and are 49.5 inches deep penetrating the face wall, while being suspended from the structure above. The glass spanning between those fins are Pilkington Triple Glazed Planar units made up of a 12 mm low-iron Optiwhite outer lite, 16 mm air space, a 6 mm low- iron Optiwhite middle lite, a second 16 mm air space and a 6 mm Optiwhite inner lite with Pilkington Energy Advantage Low-E on surface 5. The face glass is held up by a series of stainless steel Pilkington Planar 905J fittings, which penetrate the face glass and essentially “hook” on to the mullions and lock in by a series of set screws.

The end result is a clean, modern-looking façade that incorporates the new technologies while showcasing the old, very similar to the museum itself.