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Bendheim Surface 1 Frit Glass Debuts at New Johnson Community College Fine Arts + Design Studio

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Custom Lumi Frit™ Glass Creates Luminous Exterior

We have added a new specialty glass type – Lumi Frit™ – to our exterior glass offering. The Surface 1 fritted glass allows architects to create customized, brilliant white glass facades. The innovative material was first used on the new Johnson County Community College (JCCC) Fine Arts building by BNIM Architects, where it was installed by JPI Glass.

The JCCC glass exterior is the first application of its kind in North America, featuring Bendheim’s easy-to-use “clip-in” ventilated glass cladding system and the new Lumi Frit surface 1 pattern-fritted glass. During the day, the brilliant low-iron glass reflects light to create a luminous, shimmering effect. It brightens and enlivens the facade as the sun tracks across the sky. “Instead of being in the shadow, it actually glows,” said John Collier, AIA, Associate Principal at BNIM. “It is interesting, because it becomes a lighting element on the north face of the building, which would normally be in the shadow.”

JCCC Fine Arts and Design Studio | Bendheim Ventilated Glass Facade Project

The custom Lumi Frit glass at JCCC features a fine white dot pattern on surface #1, laminated to our SatinTech® etched glass on surface #4 to create a strong light-diffusing effect. Behind the 170-foot-wide translucent glass facade, second-story windows fill the studios with soft, glare-free, filtered daylight. The glass facade is also designed so that it can double as a projection screen for student art, eventually transforming into a lit canvas.

Surface one frit is rare in the world of exterior glass, due to the technical challenges of producing a colored glass surface that can be exposed to the elements. However, there are numerous benefits:

  1. Lumi Frit minimizes the glass reflections, making patterns more pronounced and easier to “read” from a distance – a great way to highlight custom designs.
  2. By interrupting continuous reflections, the glass becomes visible to birds, mitigating the risk of accidental bird strikes, especially when the pattern is designed to the 2×4 bird-friendly rule or Canada’s 2×2 rule.
  3. Surface 1 dot / mesh patterns can be used to project images on the glass facade.

Surface 1 frit - small dot

The new Lumi Frit glass is available in a virtually unlimited range of patterns. It is customized to the requirements of each facade project, and is currently available in ultra-white, as well as cool grey. Max. panel size is determined by the design and wind loads, and can reach sizes up to 84 x 165 inches.

The new JCCC building opening coincides with the college’s 50th anniversary. It offers studio and classroom spaces for 3,000 fine arts, contemporary arts, and design students. On the interior, our magnetic glass dry-erase boards provide multi-functional, durable glass surfaces for brainstorming, idea sharing, and instruction.

Bendheim and BNIM have collaborated on several daylight-friendly facade projects, including the University of Iowa Visual Arts Building in Iowa City, IA, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Bloch Building in Kansas City, MO.

Our Lamberts® Mouth-Blown Glass Brings Historic Home’s Facade to Life

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Hand-Made Glass Helps Create Custom Window with “Soul,” Bridging Old & New

Renowned glass artist Nancy Gong showcases mouth-blown Lamberts® glass and an innovative lead-free lamination technique in a new bespoke art glass window. The 10.5-foot-tall abstract artwork defines the street-facing facade of the private residence, located in Rochester’s High Falls historic district. It provides color, light, and privacy, simultaneously complementing and contrasting with its traditional surroundings.

“I don’t know how people can design or live without this sort of glass in their buildings,” said Nancy Gong, Glass Artist and Owner of Gong Glass Works. For this project, she focused on a design and color selection that “diffuse views from the outside and fill the space with soul and joy.”

Private Residence | Bendheim Art Glass Project

“I chose Lamberts glass for its quality – to match the integrity of the design.”

According to the artist, the different hues in the window were inspired by the personalities of the home’s residents. The colors and the delicate “wavy” texture of the blown glass create vivid dappled reflections that enliven the interior during all times of the day, seasons, and weather. The window provides a high level of privacy, while filtering colored light in. Back-lit at night, it becomes luminous art, projecting its colors onto the street.

Key to the design, our Lamberts mouth-blown glass in a range of colors and patterns – from streaky whites to flashed amber and red – adds to the artisanal appeal of the piece.

Glassblowing is an ancient craft, shaping molten glass into functional objects for design and architectural applications. It is a highly technical art form that requires specialized training and skill. Long-lasting colors are achieved by adding various metal oxides to the raw glass batch. For example, cobalt produces blue, while gold creates pink. Our mouth-blown architectural glass is produced by Glashütte Lamberts in Germany (see video). Characteristics of this glass include the mild surface texture and occasional air bubble inherent to original hand-made antique window glass.

To create the painterly lead-free window, Gong carefully cut out complex shapes out of the two-by-three-foot mouth-blown glass sheets, then laminated them together onto a base of clear tempered glass, akin to a glass jigsaw puzzle. The resulting glass assembly met modern building safety codes. It was then mounted on the interior face of an insulated window.

“The humanizing quality of Lamberts glass creates an inviting atmosphere,” said Robert Jayson, Co-Owner and President of Bendheim. “With over 500 colors and designs to choose from, we were able to help Nancy achieve her polychromatic project.”

Mouth-Blown Glass Production

Mouth-blown glass production at Glashütte Lamberts, Germany

The home, built in 1906 in Rochester’s 19th-century industrial center, was initially a machine shop, then a commercial office space. The recent renovation of the 2,000 square-foot structure involved attaching a neighboring three-story building that houses bedrooms and home office space, with the art glass as a focal point of the facade and interior.

Project photos by John Griebsch, courtesy of Gong Glass Works; view more project photos here.

Our Ventilated Glass Facade Brings Air and Daylight to Chicago’s 727 West Madison Parking

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 “Jewel Box” Glass Design Creates Naturally Ventilated & Illuminated Parking Structure

Glass Parking - 1 South Halsted, Chicago
727 West Madison / 1 South Halsted Parking Structure, Chicago, IL by FitzGerland Associates. Photos by Kelly Drake Photography.

In a win for design-assist, our ventilated glass facade creates a jewel-like aesthetic, while maximizing natural ventilation and daylight at a new Chicago parking structure. The collaborative design brought together FitzGerald Associates’ architects and Bendheim’s technical team to create a high-performance decorative glass facade, while saving developers over $1 million.

727 West Madison is a new mixed-use development and residential tower on the corner of 1 South Halsted Street, in the heart of Chicago’s north-south transportation corridor. The location and high public profile of the new building required thoughtful design for its street-facing resident parking structure. The specified ventilated glass facade encloses the multi-level parking on three sides. It features two distinct wall designs, comprising approx. 1,000 glass panels totaling 24,000 sq. ft. The panels reach sizes up to 3 ft. W x 10 ft. H, and were installed by Reflection Window + Wall of Chicago.

Glass Parking - 1 South Halsted, Chicago

The glass on the north and south facades is arranged in a staggered in-and-out fashion. Eight-inch spacing between adjacent panels achieves a generous amount of natural ventilation. The same system in a flat wall configuration shapes the west facade.

The different wall layouts are accompanied by two distinct glass designs. The north/south walls feature translucent white laminated glass in two levels of opacity. Forward glass panels are a more transparent shade, while background panels are a denser white to enhance the visual sense of depth. White fritted glass with a custom linear pattern decorates the west facade, creating an enlivening play of light and shade.

“This system has a lot of potential,” said Arjang Khorzad, FitzGerald’s Senior Associate and lead architect on the project. “It is beautiful. The fittings look really good. And, this kind of slick glass system hasn’t been used for a garage of this scale, so it is really special and unique.”

In addition to providing enhanced aesthetics, daylight and views, Bendheim’s ventilated parking facade was custom-designed to contribute cost savings totaling over $1 million. We engineered a method to attach the glass cladding directly to the concrete walls and slabs, eliminating the need for costly structural steel supports. To learn more about this, please see our case study.

By providing the required amount of natural ventilation through the custom panel spacing, we also helped eliminate the need for mechanical ventilation. Finally, the use of the same system to create two distinct aesthetics resulted in installation efficiencies and labor cost savings. 

Glass Parking - 1 South Halsted, Chicago
Glass Parking - 1 South Halsted, Chicago

“Design-assist played a major role in the project’s success,” said Said Elieh, Bendheim’s Director of Technical Design and lead facade designer on this project. “Our system is perfect for parking structures and has tremendous customization capabilities. Being able to collaborate with FitzGerald Associates, as early in the design process as we did, helped us take full advantage of the flexibility of the system.”

Luminous Glass Facade Elements Revamp Old Office Building in San Jose to Attract New Tenants

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Non-Traditional Point-Supported Clip Glass System Combines Jewel Aesthetic & Budget-Friendly Installation

111 Market Square | Bendheim

111 Market Square back-lit ventilated glass facade. Photo by Jeff Peters, Vantage Point Photography Inc.

Bendheim’s design team has once again teamed up with MODULUS Architects to engineer a customized second-skin glass facade for 111 Market Square in San Jose, CA. Our back-lit decorative glass cladding is a key element in the upgrade of the two 1960s Class B office towers into Class A commercial real estate assets.

MODULUS was charged with changing the appearance and perception of the two multi-story office buildings on a tight construction schedule and budget. The architects started by exploring several economical cladding finishes, including metal panels, but none was able to deliver the desired facade upgrade. Having previously worked with our ventilated glass facade systems on another commercial retrofit in San Jose, the architects and developers decided to use  decorative glass to achieve the sought-after elegance and sophistication.

Bendheim’s jewel-like glass cladding changes the way the towers “read,” making them appear lighter and more sophisticated, without requiring expensive modifications to the building mass and window lines. The back-lit glass system covers major areas of the exterior walls and creates new overhangs and decorative fins. The translucent white laminated glass panels reach sizes up to 4 by 6 feet. The architects specified low-iron glass to create a cleaner look that reads whiter, lighter, and more modern. Its luminous aesthetic highlights the building and elevates its prestige.

According to MODULUS, Bendheim’s decorative glass facade elements successfully changed the perception of the property, and are expected to deliver substantial return on investment. “The difference in the rent revenues between a Class A and B building is substantial. Clients recognize the value of the design, because they see it on multiple fronts – from aesthetic to monetary payback,” said David Fenster, MODULUS Lead Architect. “Bendheim did a fantastic job all the way through the project, assisting with the glass specifications, attachment methods, the urgency of the schedule, and finding a subcontractor for the installation. It was a really successful partnership yet again.”

“MODULUS selected our glass system because it can literally give new life to old buildings,” added Robert Jayson, Bendheim Co-Owner and President.

111 Market Square | Bendheim

111 Market Square back-lit ventilated glass facade. Photo by Jeff Peters, Vantage Point Photography Inc.

Bendheim’s technical design team collaborated closely with the architects, developers, and installers to meet structural, aesthetic, and budget goals. The glass facade system is used in several different ways on the project, including a creative staggered panel layout that adds visual complexity, while maintaining a straightforward structural design. The glass panels attach to the building via adjustable metal fittings that tie back to the existing structural beams and concrete facade. The compression attachments eliminate the need for expensive and cumbersome glass drilling, speeding installation.

The customized glass facade system was designed and engineered to California seismic conditions. It was installed by W Carter & Associates Glazing of Kansas City, KS. According to William Carter, President of W Carter & Associates, “The Bendheim system went in seamlessly. It was well engineered and offered a huge improvement to the exterior.”

Currently, Bendheim is working on a number of decorative glass facade projects throughout North America, including healthcare facilities, transit stations, parking garages, and stadiums. For more information on our engineered glass systems, please visit www.bendheim.com/professional/systems.

Our Channel Glass at Museum of the Bible Wins Product Innovation Award

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Architectural Products’ Award Celebrates Several Bespoke Channel Glass Design Solutions – from Selective Fritting to Seamless Integration with Clear IGUs

Bendheim’s channel glass at Museum of the Bible has been recognized with a Special Citation and a full-page feature in Architectural Products’ Product Innovation Awards issue. The award recognizes the ability of our channel glass to provide unique solutions to the design challenges of the project.

The Museum of the Bible by SmithGroupJJR accomplishes several challenging objectives with the help of Bendheim’s technical design team and the structural capabilities of our Lamberts® channel glass.

At the 40-Foot-Tall Main Entrance:
Channel glass’ ability to reach 20-foot continuous heights was essential to achieving a monolithic, uniform appearance.

Museum of the Bible | Bendheim Channel Glass Project

Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C. by SmithGroup JJR. Photo By Alex Fradkin.

Inside the Main Hall (Arcade):
Bendheim’s ability to provide selectively-fritted glass channels allowed the architects to crate opaque white glass wall cladding that seamlessly transitions into a see-through glass partition. The partition opens views from the upper story to the 140-foot-long Arcade bellow. Throughout the Arcade, our low-iron, white-fritted Clarissimo™ channel glass wall claddings reflect light from the ever-changing image-projecting ceiling. The constantly shifting colors and reflections add a kinetic quality to the space and help create a more dynamic, immersive visitor experience.

Museum of the Bible | Bendheim Channel Glass Project

Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C. by SmithGroup JJR. Photo By Alex Fradkin.

On the Facade:
Our 504 Rough Cast™ textured channel glass with a Low-E thermal performance coating integrates with clear IGUs within the same frame system. Bendheim’s technical design team spearheaded the design of the unified glass facade, successfully integrating the two glass types through stylish, unobtrusive tie-ins.

Museum of the Bible | Bendheim Channel Glass Project

Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C. by SmithGroup JJR. Photo By Alex Fradkin.

Throughout the Museum:
The luminous light-diffusing channel glass conveys a crystalline appearance, inspired by the original building’s function as a cold storage facility. According to David Greenbaum, SmithGroupJJR Lead Designer, “the translucent channel glass bridges the old building and the new museum.”

About Bendheim’s Channel Glass:
Channel glass offers a unique alternative to traditional opaque and transparent building walls. It creates continuous walls, including glass-to-glass corners and complex curves, that can be hundreds of feet long and can span across elevations. The three-dimensional (U-shaped) glass channels can stands as tall as 23 ft. (7 m) in a relatively lightweight 1/4” (6 – 7 mm) thickness, facilitating design & installation. Bendheim’s channel glass is available in regular and ultra-clear low-iron glass, eight decorative textures, three thermal performance coatings, and hundreds of fritted colors.

About the Awards:
According to one of the judges commenting on the use of Bendheim’s channel glass at Museum of the Bible, “Even after seeing this project often since its opening, I still am ‘wowed’ when I see the effect of the vast space, formed by the U-shape of the glass that makes for a spectacular volumes in the design.”

Architectural Products’ Product Innovation Awards (PIAs) honor innovation in the development and refinement of building products, ranging from cladding systems to interior finishes. Products are judged by a group of 16 independent industry professionals.

“Building on the success of last year’s program, our eighth edition of the awards proves commercial building manufacturers are committed to, and are working arduously toward, delivering more sustainable products, as well as products that deliver better performance, life and affordability,” said Jim Crockett, Architectural Products Magazine Editorial Director.

Bendheim’s channel glass frequently features as a key design element in award-winning projects throughout North America, including the University of Iowa Visual Arts Building in Iowa City, IA, and Blu Dot Showroom in West Hollywood, CA.

Travelers Experience Increasingly Luxurious Airport Environments Featuring Luminous Architectural Glass

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Architectural Glass by Bendheim Combines Modernity, Durability, and Hygiene

Creative designers are recognizing the key role light plays in creating vibrant, welcoming environments, and are choosing decorative glass to lend enduring style to air travel facilities worldwide. Our specialty architectural glass is an increasingly popular choice among designers for its variety and luxurious, clean aesthetic that conveys quality and prestige.

Across the U.S. and around the world, travelers spend a significant amount of time inside airports – relaxing in a lounge, enjoying a refreshment at a restaurant, or browsing a boutique – highlighting the need to create positive, competitive customer experiences. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, air travel surged in 2017 with 965 million people boarding U.S. and international flights. Airport construction is also growing at 5 to 10 percent worldwide. Macro design trends, such as the introduction of ornamental retail and hospitality elements in airport design, are making decorative architectural glass an increasingly attractive building material.

“The glass is easily the most becoming of all the finishes on the project.”

British Airways Lounge | Glass Wall

British Airways Lounge, Dulles International Airport, VA by TPG Architecture.

 

In addition to its enduring elegance, our wide range of architectural glass options provide improved environmental outcomes, including naturally hygienic surfaces and improved energy efficiency. The non-porous glass surfaces discourage the spread of bacteria and are easy to maintain – true power-performers in high-traffic airport environments. Glass is also sought-after for its lustrous quality, creating luminous environments that require less electric lighting.

Various types of our architectural glass were used to reinvent the British Airways Lounge in Dulles International Airport. TPG Architecture turned to Bendheim to manufacture a variety of custom glass, from dark blue back-painted glass to match British Airways’ signature hue, to imprinted custom graphics. Inside the lounge, customers can also enjoy our ultra-white Fade® glass, privacy glass partitions with custom graphics, and subway-style glass backsplashes. The brand-coordinated customization helps travelers easily locate the entrance to the lounge and creates luxurious bespoke interiors.

“Thanks to the Bendheim team, S. Albert Glass Company is proud of the final result,” said Mark Guidot, Senior Project Manager, S. Albert Glass Company, “The glass is easily the most becoming of all the finishes on the project.”

Back-painted glass is one of the fastest growing decorative glass materials in airport design, cladding feature walls, hallways, bathrooms, and retail spaces. Another in-demand glass is hand-made Lamberts® glass, used to create monumental art glass installations throughout North America.

Indianapolis Airport | Stained Glass Wall

Indianapolis Airport,
Indianapolis, IN by Martin Donlin

At Indianapolis International Airport, several expansive art windows, designed by Martin Donlin with Lamberts mouth-blown glass, create alternative views, obscuring the untidy tarmac landscape. The windows feature poems by local writers, entertaining travelers with thoughts of adventure and excitement.

Both in the U.S. and abroad, Bendheim glass can also be found at Vinifera Restaurant at Toronto Airport, Ontario, Canada; Hamad International Airport, Doha, Qatar; Minneapolis Airport, C Concourse, Minneapolis, MN; O’Hare International Airport, Terminals 1 & 5, Chicago, IL; American Airlines Admirals Club, Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, Dallas, TX; Rochester Airport, Rochester, NY; and Newark Airport, Newark, NJ.