Laminated Security Glazing
Glass is an essential component for any type of building. Its transparency enhances daylighting and provides occupants a view to the outside. Whether…
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Control Tower Glass Design
ASTM published the first version of ASTM E2461-05: Standard Practice for Determining the Thickness of Glass in Airport Traffic Control Tower Cabs in …
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More Than a Facade
In 2014, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) as an accredited ANSI Standards D…
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Thermal bridging: The missing key to low energy building design
Thermal bridging through building facades have been overlooked or over-simplified by designers and building energy codes and standards in the past, which has led to higher space heating and cooling loads, occupant discomfort, and higher risk of condensation.
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Skin Deep: Health, Wellness, and the Facade System
Here we are, a full year after the initial COVID-19 surge rocked the United States. It’s hard to believe we’ve been living through the pandemic for a full year at this point; and yet it also feels like it’s been multiple years. We are beginning to see glimmers of hope on the horizon as more people..
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Episode 03: DOE Does Windows
FTI's Mic Patterson sits down with special guests Steve Selkowitz of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Marc Lafrance of the Department of Energy .
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Episode 01: Passive House
The Facade Tectonics Institute is pleased to launch our long-awaited podcast, starting with Episode 01: Passive House, a moderated discussion between Lois Arena, Director of Passive House Services at Steven Winter Associates and Spencer Culhane, Senior Building Envelope Specialist at Schüco USA.
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Carbon Lean Facades
With net zero and carbon neutral mandates on the near horizon, New York City has pushed the green building envelope by leveraging incentive-based pro…
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The Seismic Capability of Curtainwalls
The testing of aluminum/glass curtainwalls for seismic capability, mainly inter-story drift, has been carried out on many curtainwalls over the last …
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Heat-Treated Glass
What was once an accepted reality in heat-treated exterior glass, optical disturbances in glass are under increasing scrutiny by developers, designer…
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Fire Safety and Code Challenges for Mass Timber in Curtain Wall Systems
With the desire for more sustainable construction and reduced embodied energy, mass timber is being explored for building structures. For medium and …
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U-Factor Matters in Hot Climates
It is commonly thought that fenestration U-factor is not a key determinant in the performance of facades in hot climates, and generally the focus of …
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When Facades Kill
The tragic fire of June 14, 2017 at the Grenfell Tower in London, England has brought to a very public global forum issues related to the impact of f…
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Subjective Perception and Objective Measurement
Current glass industry standards provide clear tolerances for readily quantifiable physical properties to assist with the evaluation of visual qualit…
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Specifying Commercial Aluminum Finishes
Many factors will influence coating selection, but to achieve the desired performance level for a given situation, coatings must be specified based u…
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Silicone Spandrel Glass Opacifiers
Curtain wall design commonly uses insulating glass units for vision and spandrel glazing to provide better visual harmonization of building facade gl…
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Deconstructing the Window
Over the years, the industry has relied heavily on the increasing performance of low-e coatings to drive window U-factors (thermal transmittance) low…
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Fire Safety in High Rise Exterior Facades
One of the most complex yet least understood areas where fire can spread is at the perimeter of a building. Fire can not only spread from floor-to-fl…
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EUI of Building Clusters
Large master planned developments such as Battery Park City in Manhattan, Mission Bay in San Francisco, and Playa Vista in Los Angeles were built ove…
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Lightning Protection as Building Envelope
A building’s envelope mitigates the effects of meteorological phenomena – including lightning – upon the structure and its occupants and contents. Th…