Las Vegas Through “Glassy” Eyes

And I thought the helicopter tours of Hoover Dam sounded cool; I had no idea that Las Vegas offered a tour so exciting as the one I attended on Monday. As part of the Glass Fabrication and Glazing Educational Conference here in Las Vegas, the Glass Association of North America (GANA) offered a tour to its contract glazing session participants of some of the hottest spots (glass-wise, of course) in this city.

About 40 adventure-seekers climbed onto the tour bus. Greg “glass guru” Carney, technical director of GANA, led the tour.

The visit began with Mandalay Bay, the southernmost casino on the Strip and notable for its sparkling gold color. According to Greg, that bright gold color was created by a 10-carat gold—yes, real gold—coating applied over a clear glass substrate. Although this ritzy casino hotel may look like it features a curtainwall, it’s a regular floor-to-ceiling application, Greg says.

The bus next passed by New York, New York. Before Greg even spoke up attendees were commenting on the bright pink, green and purple glass surfaces on this striking building. When asked how those colors were made, one attendee had the answer: interlayers, not coatings.

A quick detour of the Strip drove us all to the Rio. For this stop, Greg asked his captive audience why we thought the bright building had never appeared in any advertisements, like nearly every other building in Las Vegas. Answer: two suppliers. Spectrum Glass Products started the job, but didn’t have the laminated capabilities necessary to finish, leaving Viracon to complete the task.

From bright purple it was back to gold, with a stop at Trump Tower. There Greg recounted a story about working on Trump International in New York. Mr. Trump had been looking for a gold “tribute” to New York City, and the glass fabricator was all ready to go—until architect Philip Johnson cautioned “consider your neighbors.” Johnson’s reason for that caution is obvious in the blinding glare partly captured in this photo.

Among those neighbors are the Wynn and the Encore, still under construction. The rich almost chocolate brown on those glass-clad buildings is unique to the strip—and, according to Ivan Zuniga of AGC, unique to Steve Wynn Co. It’s a proprietary color chosen by the company for this project, he explained.

As our tour went past the Circus Circus casino, the entire bus could tell what made the roof of the glass-domed big-top casino so pink—that interlayer once again.

Our next stop was to note some of the biggest trends going on in Las Vegas. First was one of the Sky Las Vegas condominiums. Condos are cropping up across the city. This one in particular had some exciting examples of glasswork. Versalux in deep blue covered the outer units, while PPG’s lighter Azuria was used on the units toward the middle of the building. Both products are spectrally selective, Greg noted, showing how more of the building in this city are taking advantage of glass products designed specifically for architectural applications rather than just for color.

Greg didn’t have details on the project next door, but it showed another trend. The lites going up appeared to be unitized (CLICK HERE for more information on that trend).

Our last stop was one most Vegas tourists are unlikely to make (I hope): the Las Vegas federal courthouse. As Greg noted, this GSA building was among the first to be produced to meet blast-resistant standards.

Just when I thought I was done playing tourist in Las Vegas, I have all sorts of new attractions to look out for!

Prepared For Anything

I’ve started working on an article about glass and safety for the May issue of USGlass, and it got me reflecting on a “glass encounter” from my youth. I was playing at home with my brother and sister while my mom was out and our babysitter sat upstairs on the couch watching TV.

On what would be the last day this young lady would ever babysit us, my sister and I were antagonizing our little brother by playing school in our basement playroom and ignoring his repeated requests to come and play outside. We much preferred to sucker Rick into playing our games (even though he usually popped the heads off of our Barbies and ate the paper we used to play school) and, with the babysitter there, he couldn’t have one of his friends visit. So he stood angrily outside, watching us through the window and occasionally knocking on the glass just so we wouldn’t forget he was there.

Of course the more we ignored him, the harder Rick knocked on the window, until we were finally all shouting at each other through the glass and he was banging furiously. As I’m sure you can imagine, the glass was the first to break; I remember the jagged shards (obviously this was an older house we lived in) and a thunderous silence after all of our screaming. We stood staring at Rick and Rick stood staring at us, until somebody noticed the blood oozing from his wrist down the forearm that he stood grasping, and then the screaming began again. (Given our babysitter’s look when we found her upstairs, I’m sure that was the day she swore off children forever.)

Obviously we were stupid kids who had no business banging on the window. But does our foolish misuse of the product and overall lack of commonsense mean that the manufacturer should have had the forethought to protect us from the injury that occurred?

Maybe this is an extreme example, but it’s a question I’ve been considering as, every couple of weeks, we post another story on http://www.usgnn.com/ relating the latest fall through a skylight. Sometimes it’s kids who don’t know any better. Sometimes it’s roofers or other construction professionals lacking proper safety precautions. Either way, it’s an event that occurs frequently enough that ASTM is now working on a test method on the impact resistance of skylights.

According to task group E06.51.25 chairperson Nigel Ellis, president of Ellis Fall Safety Solutions, the group was convened “because the toll of occupational deaths is constant from year to year. And since the design of skylights is controllable by manufacturers it seems that all skylights should be tested with a uniform test method.”

Well, should it? Nigel told me during our discussion that the group is still looking from glass and skylight manufacturers as it examines this path. I’m also curious to hear what you think. How far can you go with designing to prevent injuries when the injuries that occur are due to a misuse of the product? Is it just a matter of reinforcing the need for proper fall protection equipment on a jobsite (or blocking the path to those commercial skylights and glass roofs that seems so tempting to teens)? Would labeling be helpful for manufacturers, reminding kids, maintenance staff, roofers, contractors and anyone else up on the roof that a lite of glass is not a seat? Or is this a problem that only the plastic skylight manufacturers should be considering?

Let us know what you think, because speaking out could mean determining the way skylights are tested and manufactured in the future.

Par for the Course …

Glass TEXpo™ ’08 is taking place in San Antonio at the end of this week—April 10-12, as a matter of fact—and the fact that this regional trade show is quickly approaching has led me to ponder once more a question that has long been on my mind: why is there always a golf tournament?

Seriously, folks. I’ve attended a fair number of conferences and written even more show previews, and it has never ceased to amaze me that there is almost always a golf outing on the agenda. For instance, the Texas Glass Association is hosting its four-person scramble on April 10 at the Pecan Valley Golf Club. (CLICK HERE for more information about the tournament.) This event seems to be a much-anticipated part of any conference and I’ll admit that perhaps some of my curiosity stems from the fact that I’ve only ever set foot on a golf course once.

… Ah yes, I remember the course well, with its lovely view of the Newport News landfill, the cement putting greens that made the ball bounce wildly, its complete and utter emptiness. If you’d ever seen my golf swing—which you probably won’t—you’d understand why it’s important that there’s no one around to witness it …

Anyway, since even with numerous trips to the range my golf game doesn’t seem to be much improving, I’ll just throw this wild suggestion out there: Putt Putt tournament anyone? In my experience, a couple of folks in business suits striving for the best angle to get their purple ball past the waterfall only gets giggles from a small number of passersby. Actually, only one individual so far has ever dared take me up on the challenge while on the road, my good friend and golf guru, Patrick … I don’t know, maybe there’s something I’m missing on this whole golf thing, but I still think Putt Putt is the way to go.

Hopefully some of you reading will make it to TEXpo this week. I’m sorry to say that I personally won’t be there. I don’t know that I’ve seen a lovelier sight than the San Antonio Riverwalk in April, and TEXpo is always a fun event. If you do make it, shoot me an email with your thoughts—I’d love to hear how it’s going.