PROJECTS

Rosewood Court, Dallas

Environmental awareness and energy conservation were top priorities for the Dallas branch of architectural firm HKS Inc. when designing Rosewood Court, a $61 million, 19-story, mixed-use development located in the Uptown neighborhood of Dallas. The structure features 130,000 square feet of glass including 5,000 insulating glass (IG) units. Hunt Construction Group served as the general contractor and Steve Meloncon was the development manager.

In addition to creating a sustainable structure, Clifford Horsak, project architect with HKS Inc., says the “unspoken charge” was to create a “quality-of-place that would speak to the legacy of Caroline Rose Hunt, founder of the Rosewood Property Company, and her companies.” In this respect, the building’s facade incorporates high-performance glazing, Indiana limestone and metal. Ensuring that the glass would blend well with Rosewood Court’s neoclassical style, which also needed to complement the aesthetics of the surrounding architecture, was a key design consideration.

Greg Oehlers, national architectural manager for Vitro America, says the original specification called for a more highly reflective glass than what was ultimately used.

“That glass product was deemed inappropriate for the location of this project,” says Oehlers.

In order to find the right glass for the job, a full-sized mock-up that incorporated a variety of glass types was erected on the jobsite.

“Full-size material mock-ups were integral to the building process and proved pivotal in both aesthetic and environmental performance properties,” says Horsak, who adds that solar control, high visible light transmittance, low exterior and interior reflectance and regional sourcing were key factors in making the glass selection.

Oehlers adds that there were also technical issues related to the large IG units that had to be addressed.

“[We had to] perform a windload, center deflection and edge pull-out analysis for each size and wind load zone of the project,” says Oehlers. “We then had to communicate these results to [the glazier] so they could order the proper unit make up for the conditions in each wind load zone of the project.”

The project was constructed with Vitro’s Energy Glaze™ IG, fabricated with PPG’s Solarban® z50. The glass was able to provide a visible light transmittance of 51 percent and a solar heat gain coefficient of .31; its light to solar gain ratio is 1.64. The Energy Glaze units are also IGCC certified and CBA rated.

When it came time for installation, one of the glazing systems used was a unitized system supplied by Oldcastle Glass Engineered Products in Terrell, Texas. Dallas-based OakCliff Mirror and Glass Co. served as the contract glazier on the project.

“In a unitized system the frames are fabricated, assembled and glazed in a factory or shop environment and sent to the site for erection. With that in mind, we had to coordinate our production activities with those of [OakCliff Mirror and Glass] so that glass delivery would not disrupt their sequencing of the frames,” says Oehlers. “This called for constant communication between our customer service team and that of our client.”

Sam Hill with OakCliff Mirror and Glass, says his company has worked with HKS on many projects over the years and was able to carry that relationship through this job as well.

“We were able to have a direct line of communication with [HKS] early on in the product selection process, which helped in the approval process,” says Hill. “The finished product selections were ironed out early on so that there were no issues to delay the approval process and subsequently the progress schedule for the project.”

Since completion, Horsak says they are seeking LEED certification and glass selection will be one way that it can earn points. In addition to the performance features of the glass, the fact that it was sourced nearby (about 150 miles) will also help it qualify for LEED points. AG

Owner: Rosewood Court LLC
Architect: HKS Inc.
General Contractor: Hunt Construction Group
Contract Glazier: OakCliff Mirror and Glass Co.
Status: Completed in 2008

Architects' Guide to Glass & Metal
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