Concealed Interior-Clamped Cable Tension System
R&D Award | W&W Glass LLC
The Concealed Interior-Clamped Cable Tension System by W&W Glass was custom-designed to meet the challenge of an all-glass lobby wall at Two Manhattan West, a glass-clad office tower that is part of the Manhattan West development. Two Manhattan West’s design team wanted a unique look for the lobby, without having any exterior patch clamp of fittings holding the glass in place.
W&W’s team worked to develop the system with engineer Eckersley O’Callaghan, says Christopher Lalonde, architectural sales. With this design-assist process, the team worked through challenges related to building movements, complex interfaces with perimeter conditions and finite element analysis of profiles. The team collaborated on the engineering, details, coordination with door and perimeter conditions, system profiles/elements, visual and performance mock-ups, quality assurance protocols, and installation procedures.
The system utilized low-iron, multi-ply laminated glass, dead loaded to hidden dead load shelves and wind load clamps connected to a profile shop-bonded to the back of the face glass to secure it to the cables. From the interior, the cable and clamp connections were concealed in a thin stainless-steel shroud to fully conceal all connections for the 50-foot-tall walls.