Transparent Façade in Oslo
The new Borgarting Court in Oslo, Norway, projects a modern image and a spirit of openness through its large glass façade. Designed by Dark Arkitekter AS and Solheim + Jacobsen, the project involved construction of one new building and renovation of another. The two parts of the building house court rooms and are linked by an underground passageway and a glass-covered skybridge. 

Totally transparent, the curtainwall symbolizes a face turned towards the city.

The southern and eastern façade is approximately 170 feet in length and 138 feet in height with a total surface area of 23,680 square feet. The glass chosen for the façade was neutral Glaverbel Stopray Safir, which offers high levels of thermal protection and solar control. 

The two sections of the façade are linked by an angle of curved glass made from Sunergy Clear low-emissivity solar control glass. Selected for its compatibility with Stopray Safir, in terms of both appearance and performance, Sunergy Clear also is a hard-coat product which allows it to be tempered and bent.

A roof of enhanced thermal insulation laminated glass combining Planibel Green with Top N provides the finishing touch to the glass construction.

Invisible opening windows have been added, making the façade functional, sleek and uniform—just what the architects wanted. 

New Heights in Philly
Rising 57 stories, 975 feet, into the Philadelphia skyline, Comcast Center Tower will be the tallest building between New York and Chicago when it is completed in the fall of 2007. Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects LLP, New York, in cooperation with owner/developer Liberty Property Trust, Malvern, Pa., the project features a dramatic glass curtainwall that is designed to increase its energy efficiency. But aesthetics are important also, and glass fabricator J. E. Berkowitz L.P. has been contracted to supply precision custom-patterned architectural glass that stays within tolerances to help minimize roller-wave distortion for a number of the structure’s high-profile elements. 

The glass fabricator is already fabricating more than 165,000 square feet of the high-performance Solarban 60 low-E coated, ultra-clear Starphire insulating glass units that will be used on the structure’s backlit LED corners, as well as a 120-foot glass enclosed winter garden, the penthouse inset wall and a large two-story backlit LED cube wall that crowns the structure. The IG units feature gray silicone sealant to help improve sightlines. 

These architectural elements are expected to enable it to become the tallest building in the United States to achieve LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Another “green building” feature that will contribute toward such certification is the tall windows that bring in expansive amounts of natural light, decreasing the demand for artificial lighting. 

Viracon will supply typical block sizes for the curtainwall insulating glass units. The curtainwall will drape on the building’s steel frame.

Underwater in Atlanta
The Atlanta-based Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates design contribution to the 505,000-square-foot downtown Atlanta Aquarium features multiple use of glass. It combines a unique exterior profile for the facility with an interior concept that gives visitors the sensation of actually visiting an underwater world. The large blue metal and glass exterior of the Aquarium, designed in the abstract shape of an ark, is sited to allow its lanterned ship’s hull to be highly visible from Centennial Park in downtown Atlanta. The ship’s hull emerges from two large buildings that feature curved, flowing roofs designed to represent swells in the ocean. These wave forms “crash against the shore,” creating an amphitheater and covering canopy that embrace the visitor into the entrance plaza of the aquarium. Viracon supplied the glass for the project.

When entering the aquarium, visitors begin the immersion process in a narrow corridor featuring two seemingly parallel tanks that contain two “walls of fish,” all swimming in the same direction, leading patrons into an open plaza, or atrium. The Georgia Aquarium is designed around this atrium, as opposed to the linear path organization common in modern aquarium design. To complete this lightness and openness, there is a skylight rotunda adjacent to the atrium. The Georgia Aquarium is the largest in the world in total square footage, number of fish (over 100,000) and in the amount of water (more than eight million gallons).

USG
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