Channel glass is making waves in North American architecture of late. In order to understand this exceptional material and use it most effectively, a new infographic presents the key conditions that make channel glass a “must” product to consider for a new building or major renovation.
Tucked into Jamaica Bay, on the southeast side of Brooklyn, lies New York City’s original municipal airport, Floyd Bennett Field – built in 1931. Recently, two historic hangars at the airfield were painstakingly restored by a new tenant. Thanks to their complete restoration, featuring Bendheim’s VintageWire™ chicken wire glass, they now sparkle with just as much “golden age of aviation” glamour as they did in their heyday.
The main objective for Bendheim at Floyd Bennett Field was matching the antique chicken-wire glass panes found on the facade. Our design experts were able to develop a safety-laminated, patterned glass containing true chicken wire for the project. The custom glass meets the aesthetic requirements of the historic restoration, as well as modern building safety codes.
Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, NY, interior view
Chicken wire glass has design applications far beyond restoration projects. Used in doors, partitions, and cabinets, it adds a refined vintage appeal to a range of contemporary styles: from retro-industrial steampunk to romantic farm and cottage décors. The laminated glass is also safety – kid and pet-friendly – offering added security and peace of mind.
Bendheim VintageWire™ Gothic chicken wire glass
Femenella & Associates, the window restoration team for Floyd Bennett Field, had only the best to say about working with Bendheim: “Our relationship with Bendheim spans generations. We share a passion for glass,” said Art Femenella, President of Femenella & Associates. “Bendheim was our first choice for this restoration because of the company’s exceptional capabilities and access to rare glass designs. We are very pleased with the way this project turned out.”
Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, NY, a hangar before restoration
Today’s visitors to Floyd Bennett Field can enjoy the quiet serenity of its wide-open seascapes. The restoration offers a visual immersion into the early 20th century. It is a reminder of the aviation history made here, including headline-making flights by Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, and Wiley Post. The two restored hangars, featuring Bendheim’s chicken wire glass, also house a natural gas delivery connection, serving the energy needs of approximately 1.8 million present-day New Yorkers.
In addition to the virtually unlimited range of designs available to A&D professionals through our consultative design process, Bendheim offers homeowners and remodelers more than 150 decorative glass varieties online for a range of applications, including chicken wire glass.
Bendheim is announcing the latest addition to our family of micro-fluted privacy glass: Houdini Unlocked. The innovative architectural glass collection delivers the highest levels of visual and acoustic privacy. It also enhances interiors with its refined aesthetic and daylighting abilities.
Houdini’s fine linear texture obscures the shapes of people and objects to such an extent, they seem to disappear, transformed into abstract glimmers of light and motion. This unique optical quality provides the ultimate balance of daylight and privacy. In laminated form, Houdini also adds sound control benefits. It is a cost-effective, foolproof alternative to complex daylight control devices.
In opaque form – back-painted or laminated to mirror – Houdini Unlocked allows design professionals to extend the contemporary linear aesthetic to wall surfaces. The micro-fluted glass creates a crisp, sparkling appearance, adding dimension and rhythm to the space.
The new Collection can enhance any setting that calls for elegance and privacy, including healthcare, educational, and office facilities. For example, an architect designing a new workspace for a tech startup may need a tailored alternative to the open-office concept. However, blocking natural light with opaque walls and doors detracts from employee comfort and productivity. Both collaborative and concentrated work is fostered by daylight-friendly, anti-glare Houdini glass partitions. Engineers preferring privacy can disappear behind the obscuring glass. Collaborative teams are still connected through open-plan workstations, with daylight pouring in through the peripheral glass walls.
The range of the new Houdini Unlocked Collection includes: ultra-clear (low-iron) and bronze laminated glass, woven patterns, plaid and chicken wire interlayers, back-painted colors, as well as gold and bronze mirror finishes.
Pale Gold Houdini™ laminated mirrored interior glass wall
“The original Houdini glass has been very well received by the design world. Now, we are expanding the palette,” said Steven Jayson, Bendheim’s Vice President. “We are adding the ability to specify Houdini in a color or style that complements each unique project. We’re excited to see designers take it to the next level.”
As a valuable partner, Bendheim’s team brings decades of specialty architectural glass experience to building and design professionals throughout the design process, from concept to completion.
The Contemplative Court, one of the key attractions at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture, features a one-of-a-kind, copper-bronze Bendheim architectural glass. Developed and produced exclusively for the museum, the metallic glass creates a sense of luminosity and warmth, contributing to the serenity and elegance of the space.
As the latest addition to the National Mall, the new museum pays homage to African American art, tradition, history, and culture. Defined by sweeping walls of custom glass, the Contemplative Court serves as a space for pause and reflection, providing visitors an opportunity to process the weight of the museum’s contents.
Bendheim faced major challenges in the creation of a glass that needed to meet the highly sensitive needs of the museum: the glass had to display a subtle luminosity and a balance of opacity and translucency, while providing sound control and safety.
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC by David Adjaye Associates. Photos by Anna Lorente.
We collaborated with lead architects at Adjaye Associates, lead designers for the museum, and Davis Brody Bond to conceptualize and produce the glass. The Bendheim design team created multiple glass types over a period of three years, as the architectural concept evolved.
Through all the communications, and all the samples, a glass with a core of specialized bronze-metallic mesh brought the architects’ vision to light.
The luminous bronze colored walls of semi-transparent glass separate museum gallery traffic from the Court, where visitors can quietly contemplate what they have viewed. The laminated glass offers enhanced safety and sound control. The resulting “quiet” aesthetic contributes to the design objective – to promote reconciliation and healing.
“Our grandfather started this company because he was passionate about glass,” said Steven Jayson, Bendheim’s Vice President. “He wanted to supply quality, timeless products that made meaningful contributions to our architectural history. He would have been proud to see Bendheim glass in a building of such national significance.”
For four generations and 90 years, Bendheim has built our company on collaborations with building professionals, providing unprecedented knowledge and expertise. We have had the opportunity to contribute to several historic architectural landmarks, including The White House in Washington, DC, Shaw Center for the Arts in Baton Rouge, LA, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO.
We are happy to announce that our new Unitized Channel Glass Façade System is the winner of the prestigious GOOD DESIGN™ award for innovation and design from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design.
Founded in 1950, GOOD DESIGN™ is the oldest and most respected program for design excellence worldwide. Awarded corporations represent some of the world’s most visionary FORTUNE 500 companies, including 3M Co., Apple, Inc., and Porsche.
Bendheim’s award-winning Unitized Channel Glass Façade System can be seen at The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, designed by Overland Partners. Here, it addresses several major design challenges, including:
Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, San Antonio, TX by Overland Partners. Photos courtesy of the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio.
A project of this complexity required a partner with integrated design knowledge, manufacturing capabilities, and installation experience. Bendheim’s technical design team collaborated with the architects and installers to develop the innovative customized system, ensuring the colorful façade units could be easily hoisted, aligned, and secured into position. This resulted in an exceptionally fast installation with visually striking results, and contributed to winning the Award.
“The close collaboration between Overland and Bendheim in the development of the colored glass panel system was key to overcoming the technical challenges,” said Kris Feldmann of Overland Partners. “The inclusion of color in the façade of the transformed hospital further solidifies it as an important institution to the cultural fabric of downtown San Antonio.”
Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, San Antonio, TX by Overland Partners. Photos courtesy of the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio.
“Design has a tremendous impact on the human experience,” added Robert Jayson, President of Bendheim. “Our channel glass brings color and light together to positively impact the patients’ experience. This is the power of design innovation.”
For 90 years, Bendheim has built its company on successful collaborations with building professionals, providing unprecedented knowledge and expertise. Bendheim specializes in transforming design challenges into opportunities for creating unique solutions.
Building on hundreds of recent collaborations with architects and interior designers, Bendheim is announcing our first color collection for 2017: back-painted glass in soft pastel hues. The trend-sensitive palette is designed for today’s health and comfort-focused design models. The collection is composed of 12 nature-inspired hues, from “Robin’s Egg Blue” and “Pale Green Tea,” to “Lavender Off-White” and “Palest Pink.”
Bendheim’s consultative design approach to architectural glass results in close relationships with design creatives throughout the country and hundreds of tailored glass solutions produced each week. This allowed our color experts to identify a surge in the demand for pastels in a variety of projects, from restaurants to tech startups.
“Pastels are filling design boards across building types and locations, often undetected because of their ability to gently blend in,” said Steven Jayson, Vice President of Bendheim. “This collection is a direct response to what designers need today.”
Bendheim credits pastels’ popularity to the rise of health and wellness-centered design. The effort to create warmer and more social spaces calls for the use of softer colors and materials. This philosophy guided our design consultants to pair the new pastel palette with our “Soft-Etched” SatinTech™ glass. The resulting back-painted glass feels silky-smooth to the touch, with noticeably muted reflections and subtle dimensionality. The durable, maintenance-friendly glass is also anti-glare and kinder to the eye.
Private Residence, New York, NY. Photo by Michael Gottlieb.
As with all Bendheim back-painted glass, the new collection features our industry-leading, independently-tested paint formulations. They are designed specifically for architectural glass, and are applied to ultra-clear low-iron glass for precise color matching. The colors are ultra-durable: baked-in and UV-stable. The resulting hard-working glass surfaces are 100% VOC-free and naturally hygienic, enhancing occupant health, comfort, and safety.
“We believe we are responsible for developing new, environmentally safe colors and techniques in glass, and we’re thrilled to deliver this on-trend collection,” added Jayson. “From the pastel shades to the soft, satin-smooth surfaces, it is an exciting twist on the back-painted glass architects and designers are accustomed to.”
Bendheim produces the new “Vivid Pastels” back-painted glass in our vertically-integrated plant in New Jersey. Typical lead times are 3-4 weeks. The glass can be specified in sizes up to 60 by 120 inches (1.5 by 3 meters), in standard thicknesses of 1/4” (6 mm) or 3/8″ (10 mm). An ultra-thin 1/8” (3 mm) thickness is also available; it is ideal for laminated glass applications required to meet strict safety codes and weight limitations, such as elevator interiors.
Bendheim’s New Jersey glass back-painting line. Bendheim’s proprietary, third-party tested, baked-in pant formulations offer added durability and faster product delivery.
