From networking to sightseeing, there were almost as many reasons to go to the AIA Conference on Architecture as there were attendees. Yet there is one goal that every participant of the American Institute of Architects’ annual convention has in common: firsthand exposure to the latest building products and design technologies at the expo portion.
This year’s convention took place in Orlando, Florida from April 27 to 29, and nearly 800 manufacturers and vendors converged on Central Florida to provide the hands-on learning that convention-goers crave.
Guardian Glass responded to architects’ desire to find new ways to build with glass with its Guardian Glass Solutions Hub.
Guardian UltraClear™; courtesy Guardian Glass
“We’ve listened to our customers and created focused topics to help our booth visitors See What’s Possible™,” says Brian Schulz, Guardian Glass North America’s products manager. The manufacturer’s booth provided on-the-spot consultations and lively five-minute talks by Guardian glass experts on areas of interest to help create better buildings.
The Guardian Glass Solutions Hub was a highlight of the exhibit hall — which sprawled over 170,000 square feet — as Guardian offered diverse glass resources to new customers and longtime clients. A rotating series of topics helped AIA attendees understand these choices and how to combine aesthetics with performance features such as light transmission, U-factor and solar heat gain to solve their design and performance challenges and inspire ideas about how to Build With Light®.
T-Mobile Arena; photo by Abstract Photography, Inc.
Bringing Design Vision to Life
Guardian Glass experts showed how the right glass and coating bring to life your design vision: A great example is the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, designed by Populous Architects. This Guardian Glass project illustrates how high performance, low-E glass can work with dramatic design — in this case, bent glass. Triple silver Guardian SunGuard® SNX 51/23 glass ensures the arena’s curved façade enjoys the highest light-to-solar heat gain ratio in the industry.
University of Alaska Fairbanks Wood Center; photo © Kevin G. Smith Photography
Performance = Energy Savings and Sustainability Credits
Guardian’s team also spoke about how glass can impact occupant comfort, energy savings and sustainability program qualifications. In the example of Perkins+Will’s University of Alaska Fairbanks Wood Center, natural light pours into a campus destination that offers comfortable space with beautiful views year-round. The innovative curtain wall design, which includes SunGuard® SuperNeutral® 68; laminated, colored glass; a vacuum insulated panel and innovative thermal spacer, exceeded the 2030 Challenge by reducing the modeled energy use 66 percent below a typical dining hall.
University of Alaska Fairbanks Wood Center; photo © Kevin G. Smith Photography
Solutions for a Subtropical Climate
In a nod to the Orlando location, the Glass Solutions Hub was a fount of information on glass solutions for a subtropical climate. The region demands a glass that controls the sun’s glare and blocks its heat, in particular: For the University of North Florida Osprey Dining Hall, Jacksonville-based DP / Smith-McCrary Architects specified triple silver Guardian SunGuard® SNX 62/27, another high performance low-E glass solution. The Guardian Glass team also reviewed use of laminated glass, often necessary in this region where hurricanes and high winds are possible.
Osprey Hall by Architect DP / Smith-McCrary Architects Inc., Jacksonville FL
Good Looks and a Work Ethic: Today’s Interior Glass
It didn’t stop with the façade — Guardian demonstrated how interior glass can support well-being and productivity while offering visual or acoustical privacy. Walls, partitions, tables, stairs and more allow architects and designers to pull light through interiors with exceptional clarity in the example of low-iron Guardian UltraClear™ glass, which offers very high light transmission and appears color-neutral clear to the edge, reducing the green tint.
These Guardian Glass products, additional SunGuard glass and Guardian InGlass® interior glass products, along with a comprehensive portfolio of digital services, Guardian Glass Analytics™, provided visual aids to the conversations and one-on-one interactions.
Guardian showed off the newest tool in the Glass Analytics toolbox at AIA: The Guardian Sustainability Calculator. The Sustainability Calculator gives users the power to select, evaluate and document environmental performance for Guardian SunGuard or InGlass architectural glass products.
The company also recently announced plans to construct a jumbo coater so that it can supply bigger sheets of coated glass for fabrication into glass façades and windows. How this new investment allows the high-performing SunGuard portfolio to support more expansive views and higher daylight penetration in buildings were surely another topic of discussion.
The Guardian Glass Solutions Hub continued a long tradition of helping design professionals become fluent in the language of glass.
The SunGuard glass product line from Guardian Glass offers excellent solar control and a wide variety of colors and performance levels. SunGuard glass products provide innovative, leading solutions for appearance, economics and energy efficiency, and are available through an international network of independent Guardian Select® fabricators. If you missed AIA, you can still find information about SunGuard, InGlass interior products, Guardian services and the Glass Solutions Hub, by visiting guardianglass.com.
