Boston Site-Seeing, the USGlass Way

I headed up to Dulles International Airport Wednesday afternoon, on my way to Boston for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Convention. I’m at Dulles a lot, and I always enjoy watching the progress on their construction of the new underground train lines and walkways that will better connect the terminals. Wednesday I happened to linger for a few minutes outside the security checkpoint to watch the installation of the last of a series of (comparatively) small skylights. A number of lites of glass were propped up on the roof—I suppose you can call it the roof, although the concrete surface with its scattered pyramids of glass was several feet below my viewing area. I watched a crane slowly lifting … well, presumably the skylight or pieces of it that would fill the large opening the three orange-vested workers stood around. I never saw the load make it to its destination. I decided it would be better if I didn’t dawdle too long or snap photos to share with you, readers, as security had already thoroughly checked my bags and I was hoping they wouldn’t do the same to my person.

So it was off to Boston, with my site-seeing already begun.

You see, last week’s call for unique projects in the Boston area hadn’t gone unanswered. Mike Gainey of Azon USA was kind enough to point out a unique and artistic work at Brown University, which Mapquest tells me is about an hour outside of that city. The Lines of Sight Installation is comprised of 140 windows. According to information from the school, each unit is made up of hundreds of thousands of glass elements—made of slightly green-tinted glass or crystal-clear glass, tiny magnifying lenses and small mirrors and prismatic beads—interspersed with about a half-million clear glass distillation beads. Small rectangles of glass, resembling microscope slides, were hand-engraved with phrases of poetry or prose, the authors’ names and their birth year. Finally, the outer layer of glass was sandblasted with the faint image of two hands, one on either side of the bridge. Mike reports that Solar Seal, a commercial glass fabricator in Boston, made the IG units that artist Diane Samuels worked on.

"I have not seen the glass on the jobsite but did in the factory and it was really fun to see something so artistic out of what we do every day,” Mike told me.

It seemed like such an interesting project I just had to share that background here.

While I didn’t get too much opportunity for any touristy trips in Boston—days jam-packed with seminars and booth appointments kept me hopping—there were two buildings that used glass in ways worth noting.

On Friday night Oldcastle Glass hosted a lovely reception at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter. One of the top ten sustainable buildings in the nation, as selected by AIA, the venue typically provides the city’s “underserved youth with the keys to self-sufficiency through paid employment in the arts.” On Friday night it had been transformed into a musical and colorful site for industry networking. I’m mildly embarrassed to say that I did in fact text a photo that night to my coworker Penny Stacey, editor of sister publication AGRR/glassBYTEs, not of the artwork decorating the walls but of the windshields that formed the railing along the loft-like second story. I knew Penny would approve of this mode of decorating.

The second building may seem like an obvious choice, but those of us in the combined USGlass/Glass Association of North America booth couldn’t help but comment on the appropriateness of the new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center as the site for our glass-related activities. The glass-walled Skywalk, the hallway across the expo, provided a neat overview of the show. And the importance of daylighting clearly wasn’t lost on the construction team responsible for the new building. It was a neat venue, and I look forward to returning soon!

Boston, Here I Come!

I’ll admit it: I’ve been looking forward to this week’s American Institute of Architects (AIA) Convention for months now. And yes, I’m looking forward to the insightful seminars on topics such as “Daylighting Obstacles,” “High-Performance Enclosures” and “Energy Codes and Fenestration.” And the interaction with architects expressing where they see demand for glass heading, providing the fuel for many articles to come. And the many appointments set up with companies such as Zeledyne (formerly ACH), which is going through such an exciting transition right now, and others that are just hinting at exciting product introductions to come. But can I be honest with you for a minute? Truth be told, I’m really excited about spending four days in Boston.

I’ve actually only been to Boston once, as part of a school trip back in college. My roommate was a historic preservation major and I was just interested enough in the fascinating topic to take part in the club activities and trips (but not the intensive class work; we lucky English majors just had to curl up with a good book!). What a great way to see a city, though, through its historic architecture.

The first thing I remember about that trip is that it was March and the wind was blowing furiously to the point that our group of 16 traversed the city through a complicated system of coffee shops in order to stay out of the cold: walk a block, stop in Starbucks, walk two blocks, pop into a local coffeehouse, walk half a block until the wind picks up, time for another caramel macchiato.

The next thing I remember is visiting Paul Revere’s house. And, ironically enough, even all of those years ago what interested me the most about the small, historic house surrounded by skyscrapers was (you guessed it) the glass in the windows. No, I am not making this up.

The tour guide explained that you could tell that several of the original lites were still in place because of the lavender color they had taken on over time. (One online source tells me the color change was due to an excess of manganese oxide in the glass. Another says the color was the result of ultraviolet light on the imperfections in a shipment of glass sent to Boston around 1820. Your thoughts?) He also noted that there was a barely perceptible difference between the thickness at the top of each small pane from the bottom because the glass was slowly “dripping” down, glass being a liquid and all … Is that so, I thought at the time. How would you have responded to this comment? Throw your best technical jargon at me so I can casually spout this industry knowledge to other tourists next time I make my way back to Paul’s home.

That visit probably won’t be during this trip. Hopefully I’ll make it out of the convention center for five minutes this week to explore more of this fascinating city. Being time crunched, I sure would appreciate it if you would stop by the USGlass booth, #14165, to share your recommendations of must-see examples of Boston architecture. I’d love another tour like the one I recently took part in while in Las Vegas for Glass Fab. You can bet I’d be staying extra days if it weren’t for the fact that my brilliant and wonderful sister is graduating from the University of Virginia this Sunday with a bachelor’s degree in German and a minor in French (I just had to get that “shout-out” in there). Congratulations Robyn!

Stay Safe Everybody!

Today marks the start of Building Safety Week, as promoted by the International Code Council (ICC). This year’s theme is “Building Safety: Where You Live, Work and Play.” Among the top five building safety tips the ICC proposes for homeowners is the installation of “tempered or multiple pane windows – Windows allow heat to pass through and ignite combustible materials inside. Dual- or triple-pane thermal glass, and fire resistant shutters or drapes, help reduce the wildfire risk. You can also install non-combustible awnings to shield windows and use shatter-resistant glazing such as tempered windows to help prevent breakage from heat and debris.”

I’m sure the glass industry can offer a number of additional ways in which to promote building safety. Are you promoting the many ways in which glass can keep people safe in your community?

For our part, USGNN.com recently ran a preview of an article on skylight safety that will be appearing in our May issue of USGlass. While I found in researching the article a great deal of discussion over whether a human-impact resistance standard was as necessary for glass skylights as compared to plastic skylights, it sure seems like something needs to be done. That same day we ran an article titled “Child Falls Through School Skylight.” The following day we ran this link: "Boy Fighting for Life" (notice the mention of the plastic skylight—I wish more of these articles made note of the type of product involved in these injuries). Unfortunately, these stories aren’t so rare as one might hope. Hopefully programs such as the one ICC is promoting this week will help keep more people safe.

While ICC’s safety promotion might be aimed at the consumer, what better time than the present to take a look at your own safety program and make sure your facility is in full compliance with OSHA regulations.

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.

Flipping Pages on My Computer Screen

I remember some time ago attending a conference that hosted a keynote speaker who talked about the changes brought on by increasing use of technology. He pointed out that many of his listeners probably had children who could program cell phones for their parents with ease, couldn’t remember a time without the Internet and had friends they’d never met with face-to-face thanks to instant messaging and on-line games. For this tech-savvy generation many companies are adapting the way they do business and bringing more operations on-line.

I could certainly relate to the differences the speaker pointed out between just two generations. I’m the oldest of five siblings and, as I’m part of what I like to call a “modern family,” I have a young half-brother and half-sister who are as often as not mistaken for my own kids when we hang out. It’s amusing for me to see the toys they play with that I’d never even dreamed of having as a kid, and their online aptitude boggles even my mind. For instance, by the time he was six, my brother had passed by the Nintendo systems I played with as a child in favor of online gaming. My dad loves to recount the time my brother, as Dad tucked him at bedtime, asked where Finland was. Dad pulled out the globe and pointed and then asked why—only to have my brother explain that he’d made a new friend there.

My half-sister recently got her own laptop for Christmas so that she could have easy access to online games and e-mail like her older siblings. You might ask what a seven-year-old needs with e-mail. Would you ever be surprised.

I guess if you can make friends online, it’s not too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that at some point most of our reading will be done online. I’m old-fashioned enough that I can’t imagine reading something like Jane Austen by the glow of a computer screen, even if it was a screen portable enough so that I could curl up in an armchair with my digital tome. But I also know that it pays to have quick access to resources that provide news or timely information that you want to share. That’s one of many reasons that USGlass magazine is now available in a digital format. You can visit http://www.usglass-digital.com/ to view our March issue or CLICK HERE to read today’s http://www.usgnn.com/ announcement about the launch of our digital publications.

I was surprised myself when I first saw the digital edition in that it follows the same format as a magazine—even to “flipping pages.” By sending the publication via e-mail, versus snail mail, those of you who are always on the road—or know how long it takes to receive your magazine internationally—will receive the latest information the moment that it’s printed. If you are already an avid reader of our e-newsletter, http://www.usgnn.com/, then you know how important it is to have the most up-to-date information from a wide variety of sources. The digital editions of USGlass add that immediacy to our columns and features as well.

Now those of you with an iPhone or otherwise easily portable electronic device will just have to let me know if it’s the same reading through a digital publication as it is poring through the print pages—I mean, you can’t flip down a page online. Although you can tell your clients or colleagues, “You know, I was just reading an article about this very topic … let me just pull it up online …”