44 results

  • Multi Layer Facades featured image

    Multi Layer Facades

    The history of high performance facades and glazing has been a tale of attempting to manage the conflicting requirements of, on one hand inviting con…

  • Sustainable Silicone featured image

    Sustainable Silicone

    Silicone materials have a long history in high performance building projects. Known for durability, they can reduce a building’s carbon footprint by …

  • Reduce, Reuse, Reclad featured image

    Reduce, Reuse, Reclad

    Kintsukuroi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with powdered precious metal, is a practice of celebrating the life and history of an objec…

  • Ginza Six

    Tokyo’s prestigious Ginza District, is home to innovative architectural design. One of the most recent examples is Ginza Six (GSIX), the largest comm…

  • Structural Silicone Glazing featured image

    Structural Silicone Glazing

    The recent 50 year anniversary of the first use of silicone sealant in a 4-sided structural silicone glazing application marks a sustainable and prov…

  • Bringing an Icon Into the Future: Willis Tower featured image

    Bringing an Icon Into the Future: Willis Tower

    Few buildings are as iconic as Willis Tower. Generations of Chicagoans have a collective memory of this building playing a role in their entire lives…

  • Fully Tempered Glass in Spandrel Applications featured image

    Fully Tempered Glass in Spandrel Applications

    Recent years have seen an increase in the use of insulated glazing units (IGUs) in spandrel applications to visually blend the appearance between the…

  • Lithic Revival featured image

    Lithic Revival

    The recently completed Capital One Hall performing arts center located in the Washington DC metro area is defined by a pleated exterior of glass and …

  • Terracotta 1912 to 2018 featured image

    Terracotta 1912 to 2018

    Center Three is a 100-year-old, one million square-foot building in Long Island City, New York that was constructed over the course of one year. It w…

  • Patchwork featured image

    Patchwork

    It may be difficult for modern man to believe that what is known as handicraft was once the advanced manufacturing of the day. These techniques were …

  • Curved Forming Panel Facades featured image

    Curved Forming Panel Facades

    The performative and visual aspects of curved forming/bending thin “formable” planar materials is explored. Early tests for deflection indicate that …

  • Historical Evolution of Responsive Facades featured image

    Historical Evolution of Responsive Facades

    Responsive facade system is considered a major component of high-performance building envelope that is capable of responding to environmental stimuli…

  • Renewing Historic Facades featured image

    Renewing Historic Facades

    As the first phase of a $4 billion dollar, 180-acre, 60 building government preservation project in Washington DC, this case study reviews the envelo…

  • Comparison of Historical Weathered Annealed Glass Failure Data to ASTM E1300

    Historical published weathered annealed failure data consisting of 13 samples were collected and glass failure prediction model surface flaw paramete…

  • Preserving a Historic Facade featured image

    Preserving a Historic Facade

    Environmental and socio-economic benefits of sustainable preservation have become apparent most recently in the restoration of the historic former Ma…

  • Retrofit Options for Historic Facades featured image

    Retrofit Options for Historic Facades

    Building design criteria requires that government buildings be designed for a variety of extreme loads including blast, hurricane, and impact conditi…

  • The Carbon Footprint of Aluminum Fenestration featured image

    The Carbon Footprint of Aluminum Fenestration

    The historical focus on reducing the carbon footprint of a building has recently shifted to include more emphasis on embodied carbon, the carbon emit…

  • Transformation as Movement featured image

    Transformation as Movement

    In 1888 the art historian Heinrich Wölfflin proposed the notion that the primary characteristic of baroque architecture is the illusion of movement. …

  • Paul Rudolph's Christian Science Building featured image

    Paul Rudolph's Christian Science Building

    This paper presents new historical research on the concrete facade of an important but relatively unknown and now demolished building by the American…