Bendheim Channel Glass Projects Win Top Architectural Honors

We are proud to announce that two buildings featuring our channel glass wall systems are winners of the 2017 American Architecture Awards. The prestigious awards honor the best new buildings in the USA. Bendheim’s channel glass is a key design element in both structures, contributing to their striking aesthetics and lighting strategies.

The University of Iowa New Visual Arts Building is a hallmark of contemporary glass architecture. Its channel glass walls provide high-quality natural light, creating an illuminating, inspiring educational environment. Designed by Steven Holl Architects, this structure illustrates how filtered daylight can enhance classrooms, art studios, and lounge spaces.

University of Iowa – Visual Arts Building, Iowa City, IA by Steven Holl Architects

The new Blu Dot Showroom in West Hollywood, California, makes a design statement by revamping a 70-year-old façade with Bendheim’s channel glass rainscreen system. Standard Architecture selected our channel glass for its refined aesthetic and ability to transform the light. During the daytime, the textured glass channels shimmer in reflected sunlight. Back-lit at night, they transform the building into a lantern.

Blu Dot Showroom, West Hollywood, CA by Shawmut Design and Construction. Photo by Benny Chan.

Lighting – both natural and artificial – is a paramount element of both award-winning designs. Channel glass contributes to each building’s lighting strategy through its anti-glare, light-diffusing properties and exceptionally long spans.

Channel glass offers a stunning alternative to traditional wall systems, creating virtually seamless, luminous glass walls of unlimited lengths. The self-supporting glass channels can stand as tall as 23 feet, while requiring minimal framing. The end result is a uniform appearance with clean design lines.

Bendheim’s channel glass is available in eight decorative textures, in regular and low-iron glass, three thermal performance coatings, and hundreds of ceramic frit colors. The glass contains as much as 40% post-consumer recycled material. It is produced in a super-efficient glass furnace, powered by an ultra-clean mix of oxygen and natural gas.

Over the years, Bendheim channel glass has contributed to numerous award-winning projects, including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO, Shaw Center for the Arts in Baton Rouge, LA, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, MA.