Architects’ Guide to Glass

M'm! M'm! Glass!
Campbell’s Soup Employee Services Building Gets Glass Overhaul
by Katie Hodge

Camden, N.J., is seeing things in a new shade of red. The home of famous food brand Campbell’s Soup has updated its employee services building with all different shapes, shades and types of glass. Both the interior and exterior of the building needed updates, a new entrance and modernized facilities. The 80,000-square-foot building now houses amenities and meeting facilities.

New Vision
Campbell’s initiated an architectural design competition and KlingStubbins in Philadelphia ultimately walked away with the job. Design principal Tejoon Jung tried to focus the project around Campbell’s needs.

“The way we approached the design [with the idea] was that we needed to establish a new front door. It has to project an image externally to the city and internationally. Internally it should embody the pride that the employees felt with the company and the product line,” says Jung. “We established a large window which serves as a welcoming and a bold statement toward the city with a very transparent glass façade and a big red wall that we call the branding wall, which features super graphics of the Campbell’s logo.”

Melting Pot
One unique characteristic that makes the Campbell’s Soup building stand out is the wide array of products and brands used in the design.

“This project had 10,000 feet of Schuco curtainwall. The glass was predominantly Viracon VE12M,” recalls Jerry Moser, director of sales for the contract glazier, R.A. Kennedy & Sons in Philadelphia. “Intermittently the architect placed 1 ¼-inch laminated insulating units that represented four of Campbell’s brand colors: red being Campbell’s Soup, green for V8 Splash, blue for Swanson and yellow for Pepperidge Farm.”

In addition, the building also features another 12,000 feet of curtainwall that was an add-on stem system.

“There was also 12,000 feet of curtainwall from Schuco that was basically a stem applied to structural steel. This was the main north elevation of the building at the front,” continues Moser. “It included 13/16-inch low-iron laminated glass by Viracon and it provided a super-clear view of the main interior glass feature wall, which was red.”

The glass feature wall displays the Campbell’s logo in the specific red color for which the company is known

“The feature wall was about 4,500 square feet of custom color red back-painted glass and was supplied by a Northeast glass supplier,” says Moser. “All four sides of the wall were structurally glazed to an aluminum sub-frame and then shop-applied to medium-density fiberboard, which is a very flat material.”

Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope™, based in Santa Monica, Calif., fabricated the shelving and 4,000 square feet of interior ½-inch, clear tempered and low-iron entrances and sidelites, including 70 doors.

“This includes [Oldcastle’s] display cases which are under the red feature wall and hold pieces of Campbell’s corporate history including old pictures of their building, old Campbell’s Soup cans and labels,” explains Moser. C. R. Laurence Co. Inc. based in Los Angeles provided the stainless steel cable systems for shelving that holds Campbell’s memorabilia.

Jumping Hurdles
The project took a great deal of coordination to reach the finished goal.

“The discussions and meetings all went very smoothly. It was critical to the success of the project,” says Paul Marchese, project architect for KlingStubbins. “The approach was a team approach so working out details and making the design intent a reality was important.”

“It truly was a team effort. Fortunately, Tom Kennedy handled the coordination,” says Moser. “It’s definitely a job where you appreciate the architect’s vision.”

As every company knows, with the economy floundering cost is always important. Being able to get the desired look within budget meant making some creative choices.

“We were trying to figure out ways to maintain the transparency that would remain cost effective,” says Jung. “The project didn’t have the budget to use spider fittings and things like that. We had to test out different systems that were within the budget.”

One of a Kind
With the perfect mix of products the building has now been retrofitted for a new age of brand awareness and energy-conservation. The design needs of Campbell’s were met and the companies involved in the building are proud to say that they were part of making this facility “M’m! M’m! Good!”

Katie Hodge is an assistant editor for Architects’ Guide to Glass magazine.

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