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The new terminal at Kansas City International Airport opened to much acclaim in February 2023. A year later, awards are still rolling in for the project enhanced by its parking structure featuring a Bendheim glass system facade.

The American Society of Civil Engineers named the new terminal at KCI one of 11 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement award winners in 2024. The program honors projects across the globe that represent significant advancements in the engineering profession and enhance their built environments.

KCI is the largest infrastructure project in Kansas City history and has now been called “the world’s most accessible airport.” The parking structure includes more than 6,000 parking spaces, and stands only steps from the new terminal. The smart parking system directs drivers to open spaces and reduces time to park by as much as 63 percent.

SOM Architects developed a sustainable solution for the airports’ parking garage. BNIM, in partnership with JE Dunn Construction, worked closely with Bendheim and partner, Längle Glas from the project’s beginnings to build a 2 million plus square foot structure exceeding sustainability objectives.

The façade for the parking structure required over 50,000 square feet of tempered and laminated glass. The large-scale glass panels, attached in a shingled array provides natural ventilation minimizing the need for mechanical support.  It is one example of the energy-saving features found throughout the airport.

Bendheim and Längle designed and fabricated a custom system of vertical compression clips and armatures to fasten the glass to the building. The custom glass system created a design statement as it eliminated the need for a costly steel substructure that would normally support the façade. The clips themselves are set into the precast concrete structure with imbeds designed to allow three inches of tolerance in all directions.

The 6’ x 14’ glass panels, each weighing 800+ pounds, are scaled to the size of the building. Etched glass surfaces on the west side of the building protect the terminal from glare, while reflective glass to the north presents a view of land and sky to approaching motorists.

The ASCE award is one of several for the airport. TravelAwaits, a website for travelers 50 and older, put KCI atop its rankings as the best in the United States and among the top 16 in the world. It also received an Award of Merit from Engineering News-Record, and Airport Business magazine named the KCI project the 2024 New Airport Business Project of the Year.

Paslay Group, which partnered with MCI on the project, said its Executive Program Management services aided in increasing the project scope by five additional gates while reducing costs more than $400 million from original contractor pricing.

“Having someone on the Bendheim side that understands the design vision we’re trying to achieve, but then can bring that technical capacity on the manufacturer side to help realize that conceptual vision is important,” said Joshua Harrold, Associate Principal at BNIM.

“We are very proud to be associated with this project and it is rewarding to know our team, our partners, and our systems contributed to making it the success it has become,” Bendheim President Donald Jayson said. “This is a life-changing project for the community, fully deserving of the praise it has received.”

Design Adds Modern, High-Tech Look to Essex County College

Essex County College in New Jersey turned to Bendheim to custom-engineer an 8,000 square foot rainscreen for a new building on its West Caldwell, N.J. campus, bringing a dramatic, high-tech aesthetic transformation to the inner-city school.

Our glass rainscreen system creates a barrier envelope around the building, effectively protecting it from moisture. The “shingled” rainscreen system of clear laminated glass covers the finished façade. The precision-engineered system stops over 90 percent of wind-driven moisture and is fully adjustable, allowing for quick and easy installation. We collaborated with Netta Architects to design and hide the rainscreen’s structural brackets behind the fiber cement cladding. The Wall H system was attached directly to the exterior stud wall, eliminating the need for continuous structural steel support and thereby reducing the cost of the installation.

Essex CC, a two-year college, opened in 1968 and enrolls about 5,500 students. The new building is a 51,700 square foot, four-story structure that sits on the site of the original campus, a converted, century-old elementary school. The elementary school was razed in 2021 to allow for construction of the new building. “The new state-of-the-art campus is our fulfillment of our vision of transforming lives,” ECC President Dr. Augustin A. Boyake said.

Rainscreens are exterior wall cladding barrier systems that stand away from a building’s exterior weather-resistant constructed facade. Rainscreens protect the building façade from water infiltration, controlling water drainage and evaporation. The elegant glass over-cladding completely transforms and elevates the appearance of a building as it provides a maintenance-friendly, durable, non-porous glass surface.

“Decorative glass rainscreen systems are an ideal means of increasing a building’s longevity with an easily maintained facade,” Bendheim President Donald Jayson said. “Glass is one of the most durable building materials to stand up to rain and wind. Water is the biggest factor in the premature deterioration of buildings.”

The Wall-H system is ideal for second-skin facades featuring horizontally overlapping glass panels. The mechanical compression glass fittings provide increased strength and security, and individual glass panels can be replaced without deglazing surrounding panels.

The new building contains administrative offices, classrooms, labs, an auditorium/lecture hall and an admission center. John Johnston, project designer for Netta Architects, said the new campus consists “of a lot of glass and openness, driven by technology and a modern Information Commons. It will be a place where students want to come and stay. It will be a pinnacle to this County for years to come.”

DMD Contracting constructed the building and Glass Systems, Inc., of Hillsborough, N.J. installed the rainscreen.

Our systems allow water to escape and air to circulate, reducing the risk of mold, mildew and water damage. Any small amount of water making its way past the glass is drained and channeled away from the building. Any water vapor is ventilated out the top of the system as air circulates upward between the rainscreen and the exterior building wall.

Bendheim rainscreens have been fully tested in accordance with ASTM & AAMA requirements and proven to be highly effective against water penetration.