AGG - 2006 - May/June

Volume 20 • Issue 3 • May / June 2006

Projects

Watching the Stars In Century City

Part of the recent $127 million expansion and renovation of the Westfield Century City open-air regional shopping center which serves various high profile and affluent West Los Angeles communities such as Beverly Hills was construction of the new state of the art 15 screen AMC theater.

Located right in the heart of Century City where many Hollywood movie studios are headquartered, the facility opened in December. Its location makes it a natural site for a premier or for casual movie going by Hollywood's elite, both those on the screen as well as those behind the scenes.

The structure features a glass wall design, 150 feet long and 45 feet high. The objective was to make the curtainwall as invisible as possible to show off the striking mural on the wall behind it which celebrates Hollywood celebrity.

Westfield Group, the shopping mall developer which owns the facility, used its in-house architectural operation for the project. STK Architecture Inc., San Jacinto, Calif., was the design architect. They gave the structure’s sleek look a 130 degree turn with the glass butt joined and a 90 degree bend at the end panel.

The curtainwall, which slopes at a 5 degree angle, consists of 100 face panels, 70 fins, and eight doors, some single portal and some double. The average size of the panels is 5 foot 6 inches by 12 foot, and they are held in place with eight Planar fittings per panel.

The vertical wall glass is 12 mm Optiwhite low-iron glass from Pilkington. The fin glass is 19 mm Optiwhite.

The façade has integrated stainless steel portals for the doors and floating glass panels cantilevered from the portals. The canopies are Planar SentryGlas Plus laminated glass constructed of a 12 mm outboard lite and 6 mm inboard lite. The glass was chosen for its exposed edge, strength and clarity. This product is a joint effort of Pilkington and DuPont. W&W Glass LLC, Nanuet, N.Y., supplied the system and Heinaman Contract Glazing, Lake Forest, Calif., installed it. It was a design-build project.

www.glassguides.com/infocenter

Tiger Woods Energy Saver
Giving back to the community where he grew up, Tiger Woods has built a $25-million 35,000-square-foot educational facility in Anaheim, Calif. that combines not only the latest learning technology inside, but also the latest building technology outside.

To realize the famous golfer’s generous vision, architectural firm Langdon Wilson, Los Angeles, designed the facility to be powered by both a rooftop solar array and also a building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) curtainwall engineered by Wausau Window and Wall Systems. The uniquely-shaped, gently sloping curtainwall on the learning center’s 200-seat auditorium’s southwest corner intrigued guests at its opening in February.

Culminating a four-year construction effort, the BIPV system will produce 3,800 kilowatts of energy per year. The system is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States to be installed as part of a building envelope.

To span the 21-foot-high by 65-foot-wide opening, the building team selected Wausau’s SuperWall system using photovoltaic (PV) modules from Schott North America Inc. The vertical mullions that fully enclose the building’s structural steel were specially fabricated to integrate the wiring of the PV modules. The project’s BIPV curtainwall was tested and certified for safety by the Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) and also complies with the seismic requirements of California’s building code.

The curtainwall segments were sequenced and shipped knocked-down in 11 vertical ladder frames to be assembled onsite. Each framing unit contains five lites and, due to the curtainwall’s sloping and splayed design, each lite varied in size. The lites also varied in opacity and power-generation: the top panels of the PV array produce 72 watts each with an opacity of 5 percent, while the lower panels offer 25 percent opacity and produce 60 watts of energy. The bottom and largest lites in the framing system are clear vision glass. The effect of this shaded transition across the auditorium’s two-story height resembles that of a car’s graduated windshield.

In addition to TWLC’s auditorium, the school includes seven classrooms a computer lab, a multi-media center, a student lounge and a café, plus a driving range and an 18-hole putting course.

www.glassguides.com/infocenter

Hurricane-Resistant Curtainwall for Arena
When architects Architectonia Sports Design, Miami, Fla., designed the new American Bank Center Arena in Corpus Christi, Tex., they wanted a distinctive look with a lot of glass.

Because the site is on the Gulf Coast, the structure had to be designed to resist the potential impact of hurricane-force winds. Vistawall Architectural Products was asked to manufacture a modified version of its CW-250 StormMax hurricane-resistant curtainwall for the project.

The Terrell, Tex.-based supplier used its hurricane-resistant 2.5 x 7.25 inch system for insulating glass. It has been tested to meet the requirements of Miami/Dade County protocols and Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI) requirements. Now, the arena is used as the home of the city’s minor league hockey team, and it can be configured for other activities including concerts.

www.glassguides.com/infocenter