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Bendheim Announces First Project in the Nation to Feature Its Vertically-and-Horizontally Shingled Glass Rainscreen System

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Luminous Glass Cladding Dresses Massive Concrete Walls, Enhances New Medical Center Facade

 

Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, VA by Wilmot Sanz Architecture became the first project in the United States, and only the third in the world, to use Bendheim’s vertically-and-horizontally shingled glass rainscreen system. The luminous rainscreen creates a sculptural feature wall on the exterior of the building.

Inova occupies a 117-acre site that previously served as Exxon Mobil’s corporate HQ. Part of the effort to transform the 40-year-old campus into modern, patient-centered research and treatment center, the architects revamped the existing structures and added a new two-story proton therapy facility on the north-east end. The new addition houses highly sensitive imaging and diagnostic equipment, shielded behind 16-ft-thick reinforced concrete walls.

Inova illuminated glass rainscreen

Inova Schar Cancer Institute, Fairfax, VA by Wilmot Sanz Architecture. Photo by Greg McGillivray, Halkin Mason Photography.

Bendheim’s 8,000 sq. ft. glass rainscreen plays the key role in transforming the cold concrete volume into a design highlight. True to Wilmot Sanz’s mission to deliver a patient-centered experience, the facade becomes a welcoming beacon. Constructed from translucent, ultra-white laminated textured glass, it scatters light, presenting a brilliant white aesthetic during the day. At night, the finely textured Solar™ glass diffuses cable LED back-lighting.

Bendheim engineered the glass with a structural SentryGlas® ionoplast interlayer in order to use relatively lightweight 3/8” (10 mm) glass for the large, 5 ft. by 6 ft., cladding panels. The interlayer reinforces the glass so it can span under the imposed wind loads. The vertically-and-horizontally shingled panels are held in patented compression fittings, independent of each other, for ease and speed of installation. The cladding’s continuous horizontal steel substructure sits atop a layer of rigid insulation, and doubles as an anchor for the cable LED lighting.

Inova glass rainscreen installation

Inova Schar Cancer Institute, Fairfax, VA by Wilmot Sanz Architecture during installation. Photo courtesy Glass & Metals.

The glass rainscreen has more than an aesthetic and lighting role. It is necessary for the long-term performance and durability of the proton facility. The medical equipment it houses required a completely watertight building envelope. The specified Bendheim Wall-VH shingled glass system acts as a permanent moisture shield. It is fully tested in accordance with ASTM E330-02 for structural performance and AAMA 509-09 for its ability to stop more than 90 percent of wind-driven rain from reaching the air and vapor barrier of the building. The less than 10 percent of moisture that could get past the ventilated glass cladding dissipates quickly through drainage and evaporation.

Bendheim’s technical design team is available to assist building and design professionals with glass system specification, customization, design, engineering, and detail drawings on specialty facade projects. For more information, please visit https://bendheim.com/system/ventilated-glass-facade-systems/.

Bendheim Architectural Glass a Key Design Element in High-Profile Brooklyn Project

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Unique “Hybrid” Glass Creates Vintage Look in New Wegmans Supermarket

Several tailored Bendheim products, including an innovative hybrid solution, were incorporated into the design of the recently-opened Wegmans supermarket in Brooklyn, NY.

The highly-anticipated 74,000 square foot supermarket opened in October at the former Brooklyn Navy Yard, where ships were constructed for battles during the Civil War. Designed by S9 Architecture of New York and Wegmans, the store was Wegmans’ 101st overall and 47th in New York.

Brooklyn Wegmans

Wegmans, Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Steve Payson

Our glass products were used in the store’s mezzanine-level Market Café and along a staircase that leads to the Bar, also on the mezzanine level. The café features our EcoGlass™ Gothic Textured Glass. The hybrid glass along the staircase is a custom combination of our Pale Grey Diamond Wire Laminated Glass and VintageWire™ Gothic Laminated Architectural Glass. It is also used inside the café.

“The architects wanted to create an all-industrialized look,” said Dan Stewart, Bendheim Design Technician. “We created this vintage-textured diamond wire glass. The designers liked the texture of the Gothic Wire and the aesthetic of the Diamond Wire. We took the elements of the two types of glass and combined them to make something completely new for the store.”

Designers from Wegmans collaborated with Stewart to develop the hybrid solution. The glass offers privacy, and the vintage wire aesthetic ties the design back to the building’s historic character. The glass is laminated safety and meets modern building codes. “We kept the antique appeal but modified the build of the glass for the modern age,” Stewart said.

Brooklyn Wegmans

Wegmans, Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Steve Payson

More than 25,000 customers visited the new Brooklyn Wegmans on its first day, helping it snap an opening-day sales record. Shoppers lined up in the rain and stood for more than seven hours to be among the first in the store.

The project was developed by Steiner NYC, and the opening concluded a design and construction process that lasted more than four years. The Wegmans’ site was part of the Navy Yard’s Admiral’s Row, a collection of 10 abandoned historic houses once used by Navy officers.

Brooklyn Wegmans

Wegmans, Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Steve Payson

Bendheim’s team brings decades of specialty architectural glass experience to building and design professionals throughout the design process, from concept to completion. To learn more about our consultative design services, please visit our Virtual Design Lab.

Architectural Glass Plays Key Role In Design Trend Toward Improved Occupant Well-Being And Comfort

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Bendheim Glass Contributes to Today’s Human-Centric Hospitality, Retail, and Entertainment Environments

 

Modern architecture places increasing emphasis on products that promote physical and emotional health and well-being. Bendheim’s architectural glass enhances multiple aspects of the user experience in several recent hospitality, retail, and entertainment building projects.

Our channel glass, textured glass, and ventilated facade systems are among the products that illustrate how architects can use glass to improve occupant comfort. These thoughtful solutions balance a variety of often conflicting needs by creating spaces that are functional and emotionally impactful, as well as durable, flexible, artfully-detailed, and budget-friendly.

“Over the past year we’ve seen a conscious effort to use richer, multi-functional architectural glass to provide a higher level of aesthetics and comfort, encompassing occupants’ emotional and experiential needs,” said Donald Jayson, Bendheim Co-Owner and Executive Vice President. “Glass is expressive. It is associated with openness, modernity and prestige, as well as a higher satisfaction with the building design.”

South Street Seaport | Bendheim Channel Glass Rainscreen

South Street Seaport’s Pier 17, New York, NY by SHoP Architects.

Pier 17 in New York City is among the recent high-profile examples of our glass used to improve the visitor experience. The new building, clad in an LED-illuminated channel glass facade, activates the public plaza, creating a welcoming spot for relaxation and socialization. The glass is sustainably produced using renewable electricity, and is bird-friendly.

EMC2 Autograph Hotel | Bendheim Textured Architectural Glass Project

EMC2 Autograph Hotel, Chicago, IL by Rockwell Group. Photo by Michael Kleinberg.

At the EMC2 Autograph Hotel in Chicago, the interior features crisp, low-iron textured glass and mirror. The alternating translucent and opaque textured glass surfaces lend a dynamic quality to the design. They add a chic vintage vibe and divide the space, while maintaining a sense of openness.

Kinnick Stadium Fritted Glass Facade

Kinnick Stadium Renovation, Iowa City, IA by Neumann Monson Architects

At Kinnick Stadium, home to the University of Iowa football team, our ventilated glass facade blocks rain and snow during the cold fall and winter months, while maximizing natural ventilation and facilitating smoke mitigation. The facade features a high level of transparency that promotes a sense of openness and connection to the outdoors. The linear pattern-fritted glass is also bird friendly.

Buildings are increasingly designed and constructed with an eye toward enhancing the well-being of the people who interact with them. “We have to design for all dimensions of wellness,” architect Veronica Schreibeis Smith said at the Global Wellness Summit.

Bendheim is the first decorative architectural glass supplier to adopt and nurture a “consultative design” approach, collaborating with architects and designers to develop unique solutions to their complex, evolving needs. In 1989, Bendheim became the first in North America to open a decorative architectural glass showroom. Twenty years later, in 2019, we established our new glass design lab on the top floor of the New York Design Center. The lab enables A&D professionals to collaborate with our design consultants and create new, tailored glass solutions. It showcases hundreds of specialty glass samples and a full range of customizable glass systems. Please visit www.bendheim.com/professional/design-lab to learn more and schedule an appointment.

Announcing New Engineered Glass Parking Facade System

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727 West Madison- Architectural Products Best Building Envelope Product 2019

Bendheim Glass Cladding System Wins Architectural Record’s Best Building Envelope Product Award

We are pleased to announce our first-ever exterior glass cladding system designed and engineered specifically for parking facade applications. The patent-pending system is flexible and fully customizable – to allow maximum natural light and ventilation, combined with virtually unlimited glass aesthetic options.

The ventilated parking facade system recently became Architectural Record’s Best Building Envelope Product of 2019. It impressed the independent jury of architects and designers with its ability to beautify parking structures, as well as its innovative design, eliminating the need for cumbersome holes drilled through the glass.

The award-winning, patent-pending parking facade system is unique in its use of smartly engineered, field-adjustable mechanical fittings to install monumental decorative glass skins. It securely attaches glass panels 30 sq. ft. or larger, weighing upwards of 300 lbs. each. Panels are hung independently of each other, speeding installation and ensuring easy and efficient long-term maintenance.

Glass Parking - 1 South Halsted, Chicago

Detail view of system. Photo by Kelly Drake Photography.

Key to its ease of use, our Wall-PF1 parking facade system features generous built-in tolerances – up to 2” in all directions – to compensate for the typical unevenness in floor slabs and walls. The significant up-and-down, in-and-out, left-and-right adjustability allows facade fabrication to begin from the architectural drawings rather than precise field measurements, benefiting fast-track construction schedules.

Glass options are virtually limitless – from monolithic tempered pattern glass to digitally printed laminated glass – and are fully customizable to meet the project’s design objective, as well as impart a unique identity to the parking structure. As an added benefit, most of these decorative glass options are also bird-friendly, ideal for parking facilities located near green spaces or in the path of migratory birds.

Glass Parking Facade

727 West Madison / 1 South Halsted Parking Structure, Chicago, IL by FitzGerald Associates. Photo by Tashio Martinez.

The system’s first real-world application was the new 727 West Madison / 1 South Halstead parking structure in Chicago, IL by FitzGerald Associates Architects, installed by Reflection Window + Wall (pictured here). The objective was to design a jewel-like parking facade on a strict budget. Our solution features two distinct wall aesthetics – a flush panel layout with pattern-fritted glass on the west facade, and an open, staggered panel layout with translucent white glass on the north and south facades. A case study outlining the design details and execution is available here.

Bendheim’s technical design team is available to assist building and design professionals with system specification, customization, design and engineering, and detail drawings.

Color of the Year Captured in Bendheim Glass Projects

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Pantone® “Classic Blue” Comes to Life in Blue Glamir™ Laminated Glass

Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue was selected Color of the Year for 2020, and the hue is perfectly captured by our blue Glamir laminated architectural glass.

Blue Glamir was most recently used at the Samsung Solutions Center in Washington D.C. by IBI Group (top photo). Glamir is a laminated safety glass, featuring a color interlayer and a mirror back.

“Glamir™ Ocean Blue” Colored Architectural Mirror

“Glamir™ Ocean Blue” laminated mirrored glass

“We are living in a time that requires trust and faith,” said Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute. “It is this kind of constancy and confidence that is expressed by Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue, a solid and dependable blue hue.”

“Glamir™ Ocean Blue” Colored Architectural Mirror Wall

“Glamir™ Ocean Blue” interior mirrored glass feature wall

Classic blue glass can also be achieved through clear glass and colored LEDs. The new Pier 17 in New York City, for example, uses approximately 37,000 square feet of our ultra-clear (low-iron) Lamberts® channel glass. Programmable LEDs behind the glass can tint it blue (picture below). At night, the back-lit facade becomes a beacon on the Pier.

South Street Seaport | Bendheim Channel Glass Project

South Street Seaport, New York, NY by SHoP Architects. Photo by C. Taylor Crothers Photography, Inc.

“A boundless blue evocative of the vast and infinite evening sky, Classic Blue encourages us to look beyond the obvious to expand our thinking; challenging us to think more deeply, increase our perspective and open the flow of communication,” Eiseman said.

For over five years, Bendheim has responded to color trends emerging from Pantone and our own consultative design work with leading A&D professionals, continuously expanding our colored glass catalogue. Our in-house back-painting and lamination capabilities facilitate quick turn-around on new and custom design products.

Libraries Embrace Bendheim’s Channel Glass to Create Sense of Community and Civic Pride

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Elegant Channel Glass Facades Make Powerful Design Statements

Two recent Bendheim retrofit projects reveal how the changing functions of libraries demand more thoughtful architecture. As libraries transform from humble book depositories into community-friendly centers for learning and culture, luminous channel glass facades have become a sought-after alternative to plain, daylight-opaque walls.

Highlighting a Main Entrance with Light

At St. Matthews Eline Library, one of the busiest branches in the Louisville, KY area, our channel glass highlights the new entrance and illuminates the lobby with glare-free, diffused daylight. Studio Kremer Architects was tasked with the $5.5 million library expansion and renovation. A unique, architecturally significant entrance was among the key project requirements.

St. Matthews Eline Library | Bendheim Channel Glass Project

St. Matthews Eline Library, Louisville, KY by Studio Kremer Architects. Photo by Adam Olson.

According to Steven Ward, Partner of Studio Kremer Architects, among the main reasons for choosing channel glass was its ability to create a seamless glowing “lantern,” free from the visually dominant framing patterns of traditional glass storefronts and curtain walls. “We determined that installation was relatively easy and the thermal performance relative to storefront systems would be much better,” added Ward. The channel glass wall achieves a U-value of 0.19, bolstered by our Low-E performance coating and translucent white thermal insulation inserts. The nearly colorless low-iron channel glass with 15-25% post-consumer recycled content and the light-diffusing 504 Rough Cast™ surface texture create a luminous, brilliant white aesthetic.

Restoring a Mid-Century Modern Gem

A different, though equally significant use of channel glass is seen at the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library in Midland, MI, by WTA Architects. The $440,000 exterior facelift was designed to recreate architect Alden B. Dow’s original design. Outdated red panels along the building’s perimeter were replaced by a gleaming, glacier-like channel glass rainscreen. The translucent Ice™-textured glass was set over sheets of blue-green aluminum, giving the glass its vibrant hue. The addition of the resultant teal-tinted channel glass fascia restored the building’s exterior to its original 1955 expression.

Grace A. Dow Library | Bendheim

Grace A. Dow Memorial Library, Midland, MI, featuring channel glass facade elements. Photo by Moreau Visuals.

Our portfolio features over a dozen channel glass designed libraries, including the multiple-award-winning Minneapolis Central Library by Cesar Pelli, Bronx Library by Dattner Architects, and Los Angeles’ Silver Lake Branch Library by M2A Architects.

To learn more about our three dimensional channel glass, please visit https://bendheim.com/glass_type/channel-glass.