Solarban 60 Solargray Glass Balances Solar Control for Kansas City’s Parkway Towers

Parkway Towers, a fixture of Kansas City, Missouri’s Country Club Plaza neighborhood, now pairs its midcentury character with Solarban 60 Solargray high-performance architectural glass from Vitro.

The 12-story condominium building at 4545 Wornall Road was built in 1965. It has 145 residential units and sits near Mill Creek Park and the shopping, dining and cultural destinations of the Country Club Plaza.

A major curtain wall rehabilitation and restoration of the building was completed in 2023. For the project, architecture firm GastingerWalker& specified Solarban 60 Solargray glass, which combines two Vitro technologies to provide a visible light transmittance of 35% and a solar heat gain coefficient of 0.25.

Vitro introduced Solarban 60 glass in 2000 and says it was the first double-silver, vacuum-temperable low-e glass that could be fabricated after manufacturing. The company has shipped more than 2.6 billion square feet of the product.

Solargray glass gives the building a cool, medium-gray appearance and helps control solar heat gain and glare. Its neutral color is designed to complement a variety of exterior cladding materials.

The project also shows how Vitro’s Solarban low-e coatings can be paired with clear, low-iron or tinted glass to balance performance and appearance.