Our Blue Glass Rainscreen Clads Major New York Train Station

Quick Installation of 4,500 Square Feet of Our Textured, Tempered, Fritted Glass Helps Bring $95 Million MTA Project to a Close

Approximately 400 panels of our textured, tempered-and-laminated, blue glass rainscreen were installed as part of a $95 million renovation at the MTA train station in White Plains, N.Y., just outside of New York City. The glass serves an intuitive wayfinding and branding function.

We developed a tailored, “slim” Wall-F compression fitting for the project to achieve the required aesthetic and expedite glass installation. The miniaturized fitting was the right fit for the design and the scale of the glass panels, while still capturing as many as four glass corners at a time. Installation required just two months, as workers placed up to 20 panels per day.

MTA Train Station, White Plains, NY by Sowinski Sullivan Architects. Photo by Michael Del Rossi.

The glass features a blue ceramic frit, specified by Sowinski Sullivan Architects and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as a match to the MTA logo color. Cladding each of the station’s platform entrances, the colorful glass guides commuters to the nearest approach. In total, it covers 4,500 square feet.

While the glass provides an important visual aesthetic, the swift installation was a key decision factor. Our precision engineering and shop drawings provided installers the necessary support and on-site flexibility to bring the project to a timely close.

“The glass and the fittings were new for us,” said Sean Forrest, Project Manager for AFI Glass & Architectural Metal. “Bendheim provided a good explanation on how to install it and was quite informative.”

A steel sub frame was placed over the walls to support the glass. The fittings were attached to the steel, then the glass panels were clipped into place. The walls holding the glass were quite tall, sometimes slanted both vertically and horizontally, as well as different sizes, creating an installation challenge.

“The fittings have a great degree of adjustability, so we didn’t have to be super exact,” Forrest said. “Most times, there is some adjustability, but not to this degree. The adjustability definitely played a huge part in helping us install quickly. It made a big difference.”

The entire renovation started in 2018 and took three years to complete. The White Plains station first opened in 1844 and is just 22 miles from New York City. It is the third largest in the Metro-North Railroad system, with an annual pre-pandemic ridership of more than 87 million.

Rainscreens stop more than 90 percent of wind-driven moisture and can completely transform and elevate a building’s appearance. Fritted glass is extremely durable and offers multiple benefits. Produced by permanently fusing powdered ceramic colors to the glass surface, fritted glass creates colorfast, UV-stable, scratch-resistant hues for exterior and interior use. The glass can be customized with various surface textures, designs, prints and graphics, and is available in hundreds of translucent and opaque colors.

Other recent major infrastructure projects featuring Bendheim glass include Omaha’s Eppley airport renovation and the new Gov. Mario Cuomo Bridge Welcome Center.