The architect of Hillstone Restaurant Group selected steel windows and doors from Hope's Windows & Doors for a new restaurant in Bal Harbour, Florida, to achieve his unique vision and meet the stringent Miami-Dade impact and wind loading hurricane standards. The restaurant is Hillstone at Bal Harbour, the newest addition to the Bal Harbour Shops, a shopping destination in Bal Harbour, Florida.
Situated atop the open-air mall’s main entrance, Hillstone at Bal Harbour features Hope’s Jamestown175 Series steel windows and doors and a 5000 Series pocket door.
For Rakesh Patel, the Senior Project Architect for Hillstone, the first challenge was to figure out how he could transform the second floor’s “back wall” orientation into the “front and center” experience that patrons of the mall would expect.
“Architecturally the space had a ‘bird’s nest perch’ quality to it, which was enhanced using the large winged roof overhang and the wrap-around operable glazing system,” says Patel. He describes the windows as simple and mid-century modern lines with steel rolled sections and maximum glazing to make the building as transparent as possible.
Patel’s design offers numerous lines of sight, providing a dining experience appropriate in nature to the shopping experience. The 6,400-square foot restaurant’s exterior view takes in the mall’s landscape – including koi ponds and palm trees – while the interior showcases an exhibition kitchen.
“To us, Hope’s Windows is a form of art,” Patel says, “elegantly working with the architecture. We like for our patrons to interact with the architecture and, in the case of Hope’s, the texture of the solid hot-rolled steel window frames offers a tactile, artisan sense, especially when experienced up close.”
A 13-foot wide and 12-foot high laminated curved on plan glass section and hot-rolled steel frames display curved glass. The curved glass was made in one of the few autoclaves in the world large enough to accommodate a single piece of glass of such magnitude.
The strength of solid hot-rolled steel frames allowed for the creation of a 90-degree butt glazed corner to complement the open-air design. Custom designed and engineered vertical sliding windows were also created.
Hope’s Jamestown175 Series steel windows and doors feature solid hot-rolled steel profiles to achieve narrow frame dimensions and maximum glass area.