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Bendheim Introduces New Educational Website on Architectural Rainscreen Claddings

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In the United States, water damage is the second most frequently filed property insurance claim, accounting for $11 billion in damages annually. Water damage from moisture and condensation is one of the leading causes of facade failure, and can ultimately lead to the deterioration of building structures, damage to finishes, mold and mildew growth, and a decline in interior air-quality. However, this type of destruction is preventable with the use of a rainscreen. The over-cladding system stands off from a building’s weather-resistant barrier, effectively cloaking and protecting it from water ingress, while controlling moisture drainage and evaporation.
Bendheim’s new website on rainscreen claddings is positioned as the most comprehensive resource on the technology and its benefits. Designed to help educate building owners, occupants, and design professionals, the site identifies the advantages of this architectural over-cladding method in a single, visual, and easy-to-understand way, complete with:
  • Illustrated explanation of the rainscreen principle
  • Case studies
  • Installation & maintenance information
With a rise in demand for high-quality, durable, and healthy buildings, rainscreen systems provide a clear advantage. They offer tested, long-term moisture protection to new buildings and allow the rehabilitation and reuse of old ones, with minimal or no disruption to occupants. Bendheim’s new website illustrates how a rainscreen successfully protects buildings for posterity, as well as how flexible and easy-to-install rainscreens can be for both retrofit and new building applications.
The website includes clear, illustrated explanations of rainscreen system technology, a history of the rainscreen principle, target applications, case studies, installation videos, and a curated list of industry-leading resources for additional information. To learn more, visit www.rainscreeninfo.com.

Protect Your High-Rise from the Elements with Glass Rainscreens

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High Rise Facilities Rainscreen Article

We are pleased to announce that High Rise Facilities magazine’s September 2015 issue features our educational article on glass rainscreen applications for high-rise buildings.

The expert article, titled “Protect Your High-Rise from the Elements with Glass Rainscreens,” discusses the elemental forces that damage buildings and how glass rainscreen systems provide protection from wind, rain, and moisture damage. It was authored by Bendheim Wall Systems’ Director of Technical Design – Said Elieh – and outlines how glass rainscreens are an ideal solution for building facade protection and improvement, particularly in high-rise buildings. It demonstrates the functional and design benefits of over-cladding systems for new and retrofit buildings alike.

To access the complete, authorized PDF reprint of the article, please follow this link: High Rise Facilities Magazine: Protect Your High-Rise from the Elements with Glass Rainscreens.

5 Ways Glass Rainscreens Can Benefit Your Building

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Building facades take on the daily brunt of the elements, contribute to efficiency of the building and health of the occupants, and say a lot about the value and image of the property. How exteriors look and function matters.

When it comes to damage to exteriors, moisture is the main culprit. Various forces are at play (kinetic, pressure differences and capillary action) seemingly searching for points of entry for water. Damage overtime is inevitable, unless the facade is adequately protected. A rainscreen is one of the earliest design methods used for facade protection and has been used extensively in Europe and Canada. It is time we take a closer look at rainscreens in the U.S.

Simply put, a rainscreen envelopes the building exterior and, by creating a ventilated and drained cavity between the facade and the rainscreen cladding, prevents moisture from getting through. This simple design has many benefits, and a few are described here.

  1. Protection from the elements is the most obvious advantage. If no moisture is making its way through micro-cracks, joints, gaps and porous surface materials, there is less danger of rot, mold, corrosion and other degradation problems. Maintenance needs and costs are reduced and the life of the facade is extended.
  2. Rainscreens modernize and rebrand the building in one swift motion. Many structures from the middle to end of the 20th century were built with materials whose expiration date came and went, and their facades will likely require a combination of repair and replacement solutions. Once the necessary fixes are made to ensure the building is structurally sound, a rainscreen will transform the entire shabby facade and protect it for years to come, unlike repainting, fixing masonry or other relatively short-term aesthetic solutions.
  3. Over-cladding allows for preserving and reusing the already built environment rather than demolishing structures and consuming resources to build anew, a strategy both cost-effective and sustainable.
  4. Perhaps, one of the most important benefits of rainscreens for retrofits is that their installation takes place almost entirely on the outside, allowing the building’s tenants to continue their daily routines without interruption.
  5. Rainscreens made of glass offer some particular advantages. Thanks to its non-porous surface, glass is particularly weather-resistant, durable and easy to maintain. It is also non-combustible, a big plus for any building, but especially for areas with strict fire codes. Technology advances in glass make limitless decorative options possible, opening up creative and branding opportunities unlike any other material. Transparent and semi-transparent glass rainscreens allow the building to keep all of its daylighting capacity, and bird-friendly glass patterns address the growing concern in the design community for deadly bird crashes into reflective building surfaces.

By Said Elieh, Director of Technical Design & Product Manager for Bendheim Wall Systems Inc. First published on Buildings magazine’s Buildings Buzz blog.

Bendheim Fade® Architectural Glass Solves Privacy Concerns at New NYU Langone Medical Center

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Bendheim’s new Ultra-White Fade® Laminated Glass is a key design element in NYU Langone Medical Center’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Men’s Health by Perkins+Will. This elegant glass has the unrivaled ability to deliver the desired ratio of openness to opacity, providing patients the precise level of privacy they require. Fade glass features prominently in office walls and doors throughout the 15,000-square-foot space.
The glazed doors and partitions, showcasing Bendheim’s selectively obscuring Ultra-White Fade glass, separate the patient waiting areas and clinical corridors, most of which offer attractive outdoor views. Ultra-dense and fully obscuring towards the floor, the glass smoothly fades to clear as it reaches the ceiling, presenting daylighting advantages while elevating the interior with a timeless, sophisticated appeal. The thoughtful design enhances occupant comfort as it reduces anxiety.
The NYU Langone Medical Center is one of a series of new outpatient facilities dedicated solely to men’s healthcare. It received Best of Competition award in IIDA’s (International Interior Design Association) 2014 Healthcare Interior Design Competition. Judges attributed the success of the design to the carefully curated interior details. A variety of refined elements – wood and metal details, pop-of-color accents, abstract artwork, and Bendheim’s brilliant white Fade glass – seamlessly blend together to minimize the clinical feel of the space. The Perkins+Will design team drew inspiration from country clubs and VIP lounges to conceive a stylish cross between medical facility and corporate office that feels tailored, masculine, and comforting.
Bendheim’s Ultra-White Laminated Fade glass presents a superior fade effect, produced through a unique interlayer technology. It maintains the perception of openness while creating areas of complete privacy. The durable, maintenance-friendly laminated safety glass is available in sizes up to 60”W x 120”H and thicknesses up to ¾”. Glass sheets can be custom-processed to adjust the ratio of the white fade to clear within the panel. Fully custom fade configurations are also available on request.

Retrofit on Schedule & on Budget: A Rainscreen Case Study | Video

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Bendheim Wall-F rainscreen system effortlessly upgrades a commercial building without costly, wasteful demolition

 

About Rainscreen Applications for Retrofit Projects

An architectural rainscreen is an over-cladding system that is drained and back-ventilated, or pressure equalized. Both rainscreen types allow water to escape and air to circulate behind them. Rainscreen systems can reduce the risk of mold, mildew, and water damage to buildings. They can breathe new life into existing structures by presenting an attractive, refreshed, modern face. And they can accomplish this without disrupting occupants or requiring costly, wasteful, time-consuming demolition.

Retrofits & Green Building

The growing inventory of aging buildings, marked by a dated aesthetic and deterioration, poses architectural and environmental challenges. Many of our buildings were constructed during post-war booms in the 1960s and 1970s, and are approaching 50 years of age and older. Their skins have a reasonable life expectancy of up to 30 years.

According to Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, an engineering and design firm specializing on building rehabilitation: “Most old buildings perform poorly for their owners and occupants. Whether they leak, look shabby or waste energy, they still provide the basis for a sustainable future. Most of our building environment is already built; and the greenest building strategies are to reuse, not demolish, existing buildings… For environmental performance improvements, enclosures can be tuned-up, over-clad or re-clad. Each strategy involves varying levels of demolition, cost and energy improvements on the exterior. Overcladding and recladding offer additional opportunities to rebrand and update the building’s aesthetics.”

Rainscreens: Reuse | Reduce | Recycle

Rainscreen application supports at least two of the three core pillars of the green movement – Reduce & Reuse. Retrofitting an existing building by over-cladding with a functional, attractive glass rainscreen allows maximum reuse of existing building structures and resources, eliminates wasteful demolitions, and reduces the quantity of new construction materials needed.

The third core pillar of eco-friendly construction – Recycle – can also be addressed through the application of glass rainscreen systems featuring up to 100% recycled metal components, such as our compression glass fittings, and/or up to 40% post-consumer recycled glass panels, such as our decorative EcoGlass™.

In their article “The Science of Over-Cladding,” published in the NRU City of Toronto Edition, authors Michael McClelland, Graeme Stewart, and Dr. Ted Kesik note the following: “Internationally, over-cladding aging high-rises has been a key strategy for carbon reduction, especially in the European Union. A leader in the field has been Germany, where the tower blocks of post-wall Berlin have been significantly upgraded as part of both environmental policy and unification. In Bratislava, the entire district of hundreds of tower blocks is in the process of being over-clad as part of Slovakia’s environmental agreement in joining the EU… The project is not only making buildings more efficient, but also breathing new life into this aging district through new mixed use and improved public space.”

Ease of Rainscreen Installation & Maintenance

Existing buildings already present ample available surface to which new insulation, moisture protection membranes, and rainscreens can be applied with relative ease.

Eliminating or minimizing disruption to normal building operations is key to the rainscreen / over-cladding strategy. Rainscreen application allows the retrofit process to take place almost exclusively on the outside of the structure, avoiding interruption to occupant activities inside the building. This process also provides a unique opportunity to completely transform the building appearance and convert derelict structures into attractive architectural landmarks.

Bendheim’s patented fittings for glass rainscreens, ventilated facade, and interior wall cladding applications offer exceptionally easy setup and quick assembly methods. Unlike other systems, these compression fittings require no cut-outs or holes in the glass, affording superior wall strength and low fabrication costs. Also unique to our clipped glass systems, individual glass panels can be quickly and easily replaced without having to deglaze surrounding panels:

 

3001 Orchard Parkway Case Study

At a Glance

  • The Challenge: Modernize and raise the profile of the non-descript circa 1980 office building, and increase rent revenue potential.
  • The Solution: Bendheim’s ventilated decorative glass rainscreen, featuring our Längle® Wall-F compression fittings and three different types of laminated safety glass, enveloping the building.
  • Location: San Jose, CA
  • Completion Year: 2014
  • Approx. Surface Area: 5,000 sq. ft.
  • Architect: MODULUS
  • Glazier: Classic Glass
  • Glass: Safety Laminated

Primary Retrofit Goals:

  • Achieve a contemporary, elegant aesthetic
  • Budget-friendly remodel
  • Avoid disturbing existing occupants
  • Ease of installation and maintenance of new facade

Feedback from the Architect:

“… We turned to the possibilities of what we could create using the Längle clip rainscreen as a key element. With the conceptual approach of a jeweled screen to modernize and accentuate the existing massing, the system proved to be a perfect match unachievable through any other avenue. Both its cost and ease of installation resulted in a newly transformed building garnering great attention and accolades throughout the technology driven Silicon Valley, with a facade and image unlike any other in the area. It was without question a huge success and we’re anxious to use this product again in new and inventive ways as we transform the face of what buildings and architecture can be.” — David Fenster, AIA LEED AP, MODULUS

From the Contractor:

“It was our first time installing Längle rainscreens, but hopefully not the last. Everything went very smoothly, and the process was straightforward and surprisingly stress-free from start to finish, especially when you consider that tenants were in and out of the building while we were mounting the system. The Bendheim team was very responsive and a pleasure to work with. We are very proud of how the installation came out and of our part in this beautiful transformation.” — Christine Jacobs, Classic Glass, Inc.

Introducing New Ultra-White Laminated Fade® And Low-Iron Etched Fade® Architectural Glass

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We have added two new glass options, Ultra-White Laminated Fade® and Low-Iron Etched Fade®, to our line of decorative architectural glass. The new, gently fading glass designs present an elegant, timeless aesthetic, defining interior spaces when used in partitions, doors, windows, atriums, and staircases.

The superior fade effect of Bendheim’s Ultra-White Laminated Fade® glass is produced through a unique ink technology. Ultra-dense and brilliant white at the bottom, the glass smoothly fades to clear at the top. The durable, maintenance-friendly laminated safety glass is available in sizes up to 60”W x 120”H and thicknesses up to 3/4”.

Our new Low-Iron (ultra-clear) Etched Fade® glass is fully etched up to approx. 52” from the bottom of the sheet, then gently fades to clear as it approaches the top. The durable, stain-resistant, satin-smooth etched glass is available in safety (tempered and/or laminated) form, in sizes up to 86″ W x 124″ H and thicknesses up to 3/8”.

The superior gradient effect now available through these new architectural glass varieties elevates interiors, projects a sense of openness, and delivers daylighting advantages while maintaining the right amount of privacy. Glass sheets can be custom-cut at the top and/or bottom to reposition the fade up or down within the panel. Fully custom fade configurations are also available on request.

Bendheim’s Ultra-White Laminated Fade® glass is prominently featured throughout the new Preston Robert Tisch Center for Men’s Health at NYU’s Langone Medical Center. The glass provides the necessary level of privacy, maintains daylighting advantages, and elevates the style of the interiors.