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Glass bottom pool a first for Dallas

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Glass bottom pool a first for Dallas

Glass bottom pool a first for Dallas

A Dallas high rise under construction will join a growing list of structures that feature a glass bottom swimming pool. The One Uptown development is a mixed-use structure that will include nearly 200 apartment residences, nearly 20,000 square feet of restaurant space and a 480-car underground parking structure. The design also calls for a glass bottom swimming pool integrated into a two-story restaurant. The pool will sit directly over the building’s main entrance.

Glass bottom pool differ from hanging pools

One Uptown will offer Dallas’ first glass bottom pool, a feature that’s notably different from the Joule Dallas hotel’s “hanging pool,” which dangles 8 feet beyond the building’s edge, and 10 floors above the street. That pool has a Plexiglas™ side and bottom, only for the portion of the pool that extends past the building. Several other hotels around the world, including The Hilton Hotel Auckland, The Intercontinental Festival City Hotel in Dubai, the Holiday Inn Shanghai and the Adelphi Hotel in Melbourne also feature cantilevered pools.

A new “sky pool” is under construction in central London, and will be a fully transparent pool that is suspended 115 feet above ground. The Sky Pool will join two adjacent residential buildings, and is made of 20-cm thick Plexiglas™. It is expected to open in 2018.

The addition of glass bottom pools is supposed to provide swimmers with a new view on their cities, and their cities with a new view on them. The designer of the Sky Pool in London stated that he wanted to create the impression of floating through the air in central London, and that the design would attempt something that’s never been done before.

Glass bottom pools and hanging pools represent one creative use of glass that consumers can expect to see more frequently in commercial buildings. If you would like more information about decorating with glass, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Kullez, via Flickr.com

Using glass in multi-family construction

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Using glass in multi-family construction

Using glass in multi-family construction

2016 is shaping up to be the year of new construction. Commercial construction has outpaced residential building for 10 consecutive years, and in that time, designers have made increasingly heavy use of certain architectural materials, like glass. Most of the residential construction in 2016 is expected to be multi-family units. Home ownership has declined in the past decade, following the housing bust of the mid-2000s, but that has opened up design opportunities in multi-family spaces.

Energy-efficient glass can benefit multi-family construction

Glass can be incorporated in multi-family design to achieve the same goals as it does in commercial spaces -primarily light transmission and energy efficiency – without sacrificing the component of privacy, which is not only desirable, but necessary in residential spaces. Energy efficiency in multi-family spaces is exceptionally important because a disproportionate number people living below the poverty line live in multi-family housing. By making multi-family housing as energy-efficient as possible, it can help support and stabilize impoverished families by reducing their energy costs – one of the biggest variables in a low-income family’s budget.

Beyond energy efficiency, glass can play a major role in the look and function of interior spaces. Glass can be used effectively in most spaces to improve the transmission of natural light, create privacy without impairing light transmission and to improve the hygiene of surfaces in areas of the home like kitchens and bathrooms.

In addition, glass is widely available, easy to produce and easy to replace, which makes it an ideal surface for use in multi-family dwellings. Tempered glass is safe, and is designed to reduce or eliminate injuries in the event of breakage. Glass can also be decorated with coatings like Glassprimer™ glass paint. Its replaceability and ease of decoration mean that multi-family spaces can be updated cost effectively. Glassprimer™ is UV-resistant and can be used in challenging spaces because it not only resists fading, it also resists the effects of humidity, which means no peeling, even over repeated exposure to rapid changes in temperature and humidity.

If you’d like more information about decorating with glass, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Tom S , via FreeImages.com

New SF Apple Store Features 42-foot glass doors

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New SF Apple Store Features 42-foot glass doors

New SF Apple Store Features 42-foot glass doors

Last month, Apple opened a new retail space in San Francisco’s Union Square to replace it’s Stockton Street facility, one of the company’s original retail stores. The Union Square store represents not only an updated retail space, but also a new approach to retail at Apple. The store features many notable changes to Apple’s previous retail designs, but one instantly recognizable feature is the store’s 42-foot sliding glass doors that open dramatically each morning to welcome Apple customers.

Apple store signals new role for glass

The store makes significant use of glass in its design. Aside from the sliding glass doors, the store also features a façade made entirely of glass, and dramatic glass staircases that travel between the store’s first and second floors.

Adjoining the store is a plaza, which the company rehabbed. Visitors can find free Wi-Fi, a green wall and live performances, along with a sculptural fountain originally created by San Francisco artist Ruth Asawa in 1969. The plaza is publicly accessible 24 hours a day. In addition, the store design incorporated solar panels on the roof, and the store uses 100% renewable-sourced energy.

The company has indicated that its Union Square design will be replicated in other major retail locations. Glass will play an important role in the new design because, in part, the company wants to underscore its commitment to transparency, removing barriers and blending the transition between interior and exterior.

The company has begun work on renovating New York City retail space, and a new glass-inspired store in Stockholm, Sweden. The 5th Avenue store in New York City already employs an iconic glass cube, installed in 2011. One of the cube’s glass panels shattered in 2014 during a winter storm, when it was hit by debris from a snow blower. No one was injured in the incident, and the panel was replaced at a cost of about $450,000.

If you’d like more information about decorating with glass in either a commercial or residential setting, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Frank Farm, via Flickr.com

All glass kitchens gain momentum

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All glass kitchens gain momentum

All glass kitchens gain momentum

Glass is a natural choice for use in the kitchen. It’s tough, easy to clean, impervious to bacteria, and stands up to harsh cleaners. And while its original form is usually transparent, products like Glassprimer™ glass paint make it possible to add a rainbow of color to glass. Some designers have taken glass in the kitchen to a new level by designing all glass kitchens.

What does an all glass kitchen look like

The most recent design showing of an all glass kitchen was at the Venice Architectural Biennale 2016 by Dutch design firm MVRDV. Their rationale for the transparent glass kitchen is simple. According to MVRDV, the all glass kitchen design “…hopes to develop better cuisine by making the processes that go on in our kitchens physically transparent; whether it be food choice, food care, kitchen care, waste choices or the preparation of food itself.”

The Infinity Kitchen was designed by architect Kengo Kuma and media artist Au Yeung Ying Chai, and will be on display until 30th September 2016 in Università IUAV di Venezia Ca’tron. The design is entirely transparent. From cabinets to food preparation surfaces, shelves and cupboards, everything in the kitchen is entirely visible.

MVRDV has also recently completed an all-glass office in Hong Kong, which was scheduled to open on June 1. The office includes all glass interiors, furniture and equipment.

The idea of an all glass kitchen isn’t new. An Italian design firm – Valcucine – has been working with glass as a primary material for kitchens for about a decade. Their goal, in working with glass, was to design and produce a 100% recyclable kitchen.

Valcucine takes a slightly different approach to working with glass in the kitchen. Rather than working with a completely transparent product, the company’s glass line employs striking colors to bring each glass kitchen to life. In addition to being recyclable, Valcucine took great pains to make their product sustainable and environmentally friendly. The Valcucine glass cabinets are shipped unconstructed, which allows the panels to lay flat for shipping, and reduces the size of the shipping container required to ship each piece.

If you’d like to find more all glass decorating inspiration, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Valcucine

Recycling glass? Not so much in cities

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Recycling glass? Not so much in cities

Recycling glass? Not so much in cities

Earlier this year, Houston joined the growing list of cities that no longer offers curbside recycling for container glass. It seems shocking because we’ve always been told that recycling glass is easy and environmentally conscious. It is, but why are cities like Houston, Marietta GA, Harrisburg, PA, Santa Fe, NM, Baton Rouge, LA and Charleston, SC turning away from collecting glass for recycling?

Recycling glass is problematic, costly

The reasons vary, but it all comes down to money. According to Pratt Industries, the recycler for Spartanburg and Greenville counties in South Carolina, glass is the most costly item to recycle and excluding glass from the recycling stream frees up space in the company’s storage and processing facilities for other recyclable materials.

The National Waste and Recycling Association says that the sorting requirements of glass, combined with its weight and other factors make glass the most likely candidate for elimination from recycling programs. Since glass does not break down or create any toxic byproducts, it can sit safely in a landfill in favor of other less environmentally friendly materials.

Complicating the matter further is the issue of labels. Container glass is frequently labeled with paper-and-glue labels, which tends to foul the recycling stream and requires additional handling. In addition, glass breaks, making it dangerous to handle and sort.

Houston, which recently signed a two-year recycling disposal contract with Waste Management, almost abandoned recycling altogether, after difficult contract negotiations. The city was pressured by a significant budget shortfall, and the city administration was not initially able to come to terms it felt the city could afford. By streamlining the curbside recycling program – including the omission of glass – the city was able to find an arrangement that works.

Despite changes to the curbside recycling program, Houston is still in the glass recycling game. The city maintains collection points where residents who are interested in recycling glass can bring their containers. As the fourth largest city in the US, however, the loss of an easy curbside recycling program for glass means that as many as 25 tons of glass will now end up in Houston’s landfills instead of in a recycling program.

Further complicating the glass recycling picture is the fact that the bottom is dropping out of the market for many recycled materials, including glass. Not being able to find buyers means that slim profit margins on glass are in danger of turning into losses for recyclers, and no one is willing to take on a losing proposition.

In the mean time, gaps in municipal glass recycling programs are being filled by third-parties, although environmentalists and glass manufacturers alike worry that the stream of recyclable glass will diminish – pushing the cost of virgin glass higher and redirecting a material that is infinitely recyclable into the waste stream instead.

Glass is truly infinitely recyclable and reusable. If you’d like ideas for decorating with glass, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Steven Goodwin, via FreeImages.com

Iconic Glass Structures: Louvre Pyramid in Paris

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Iconic Glass Structures: Louvre Pyramid in Paris

Iconic Glass Structures: Louvre Pyramid in Paris

If you’re planning to go to Paris before June 27, you should know that you won’t be able to see the iconic glass pyramid structure outside the world-famous Louvre Museum. While the museum is temporarily closed due to flooding, and art lovers fear for the safety of the Louvre’s priceless collection, the Glass Pyramid in front of the building is doing just fine. You just can’t see it.

The Museum invited Paris street artist JR to wrap the Glass Pyramid in the medium of his choice. JR took life-sized photograph of the Louvre, in black and white, and applied them to the front facing panel of the Glass Pyramid. With JR’s help, look directly at the Glass Pyramid and all you’ll see is the Louvre as it looked before the Pyramid’s arrival in 1984.

Glass Pyramid was designed by I.M. Pei

The Louvre Pyramid was commissioned in 1984 by then-President Francois Mitterrand, and was designed by world-renowned architect I.M. Pei. I.M. Pei is known for his architectural designs; he also designed the Kennedy Library in Boston, the Dallas City Hall, the Hancock Tower in Boston and the National Gallery East in Washington, D.C. The Glass Pyramid was created to address traffic flow problems at the Museum’s entrance, and sits on top of a welcoming lobby. The Glass Pyramid is the first structure to greet nearly 5 million visitors from around the world annually. The lobby underneath the Glass Pyramid is being renovated, in order to accommodate a growing number of visitors.

The Louvre itself started out as a medieval fortress, built in the 1200’s. In the 1400’s, it was converted to a royal palace, and in the mid-1500s, most of the original portion of the building was razed and rebuilt. The Glass Pyramid sits in front of the Cour Carrre, the oldest portion of the Museum, and the portion of the building that was replaced in the mid-1500s.

The number of glass panes is controversial. When the Glass Pyramid first opened, official Museum literature and news reports of the time said the piece had 666 panes of glass, a figure that was worked into Dan Brown’s fictional work The Da Vinci Code. The Museum later corrected the figure to 672. According to the designer, the Glass Pyramid has 689 glass panels that are shaped either like a rhombus or a triangle.

The number of panes of glass in the Glass Pyramid is far from the only controversy the structure has created. More than 30 years after its construction, the Glass Pyramid still invites passionate discussions about the combination of modern glass construction against a French Renaissance background, the cultural differences of modern France, the symbolism of a pyramid and of course, it’s cost to build (about USD$16M).

If you’d like to decorate glass, you don’t need to hire a Parisian street artist. Glassprimer™ glass paint can do the trick! If you’d like some inspiring ideas about decorating glass, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Colin Cushman , via FreeImages.com

The latest glass bridge in China

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The latest glass bridge in China

Cliff-hanging walkways, Zhangjiajie, China

In yesterday’s post, we looked at the Jingdong Stone Forest Gorge and it’s new glass platform. Today, we’ll look at the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Bridge in Hunan Province in China. The bridge is still under construction, but it’s nearing its anticipated opening in July 2016. The bridge is 1,312 feet long and is perched a mere 984 feet above the ground. When it is opened, the bridge will lay claim to being the longest, highest glass bridge in the world.

Long span joins Zhangjiajie Glass Skyway

Construction delays have pushed back the opening of the bridge; originally, builders expected the span to open in 2015, but weather and other delays pushed back the grand opening until July. In addition to swings, the bridge will also host the longest bungee jump in the world.

The bridge was designed by Haim Dotan, an Israeli architect, and can accommodate 800 people at one time. Operators have also suggested that the bridge might provide a unique backdrop for fashion shows and other events. Admission to the bridge will set you back about USD$20, on top of the USD$18 it will cost to get you into the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Scenic Area, home to the soon-to-be-famous span.

To get the full effect of China’s glass bridge infatuation, you’ll also need to plan a trip to the nearby Zhangjiajie Tianmenshan Glass Skywalk, which is shorter, higher and narrower than the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Bridge. The Zhangjiajie Tianmenshan Glass Skywalk is about 5 miles away and about 1,000 meters in the air. (That’s about 3,300 feet.) It’s just 60 meters in length and a scant 1.5 meters across. It’s part of the Tianmen Mountain and is not part of the nearby Zhangjiajie National Park. If you decide to make that trip, as long as you’re on the mountain, check out the Tianmen Temple, the Cliff-Hanging Walkways and the Tianmen Cave.

We look forward to the grand opening of the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge. Until that time, if you need some glass-based lofty inspirations, check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: FT, via Flickr.com

China’s Love Affair with Glass Continues

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China's Love Affair with Glass Continues

Stone Forest

It seems as though China can’t get enough of glass. On May 1, the world’s largest glass-bottomed observation platform opened 1,300 feet above the Jingdong Stone Forest Gorge in the Pinggu District near Beijing. The platform is nearly 4,500 feet square and hangs 107 feet beyond the edge of a cliff in the gorge.

Home of glass platform already draws tourists

The Jingdong Stone Forest Gorge is already a popular tourist attraction and offers scenic views of colossal natural stone formations. The viewing platform is made primarily from glass and titanium. According to the curators of the site, this is the first time that lightweight titanium – typically used in the manufacturing of aircraft – has been used in the construction of a building.

The platform can also claim to be the “longest” glass observation deck in the world. Although it is circular in shape, the platform extends 107 feet beyond the wall of the cliff – a full 37 feet longer than the glass observation deck in use at the Grand Canyon.

Panels of glass that are about 5 feet high surround the open-air Jingdong platform, and visitors have been seen walking, exercising, sitting and lying down on the glass. While some tourists enjoy the daredevil nature of navigating the attraction, others find it virtually impossible to walk so high above the gorge.

Last year, tourists at the Yuntai Mountain Scenic Park were horrified to see a crack emerge in the 1,300 foot long glass walkway there. That walkway is 3,500 feet off the ground, and was closed immediately after the incident for repairs. One of the glass panels in the walkway was damaged when a sharp object fell on the panel and damaged it. No one was injured in the incident.

Other glass platforms and observation decks have been damaged similarly, including the one at the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago. In 2014, the Willis Tower observation deck, which is an open-air surface suspended 103 stories above ground and offers a 360° view of the city, cracked while tourists were standing on it. The visitors were never in any danger; the Willis Tower observation deck is built to withstand 10,000 pounds of pressure without buckling.

In the next post, we’ll look at China’s newest glass suspension bridge, which is expected to open in July. In the mean time, if you’re looking for some glass inspiration, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Rene Passet, via Flickr.com

Art glass factories facing EPA regulation

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Art glass factories facing EPA regulation

Art glass factories facing EPA regulation

More than a dozen art glass factories around the United States are coming under increased scrutiny from the Environmental Protection Agency, state and local regulators, after apparently running afoul of heavy-metal emission regulations earlier this year. Federal researchers with the United States Forestry Service discovered dangerously high levels of heavy metals in tree moss samples in the Portland, OR area. Additional investigation pinpointed the source of the heavy metals as the art glass factories in the area.

Glass makers not exempt from heavy metals emissions

Spectrum, of Woodinville, WA, has already announced that it will close its doors instead of attempting to comply with more restrictive emission regulations. Bullseye Glass in Portland is attempting to remain open, despite regulatory pressure and a production moratorium that has been imposed on the factory by the State of Oregon. A third Portland-based manufacturer, Uroboros, which has partnered with Spectrum on certain products, also says it will continue to manufacture and produce colored glass and glass colorants. The EPA is particularly concerned that the factories have been emitting vaporized cadmium into the air after the agency discovered that none of Portland’s glass factories had the requisite pollution control systems installed on their glass-melt furnaces.

The factories make agents used by glassmakers to produce colored glass. Additives, including lead, nickel, arsenic, cadmium and chromium, have become the subject of concern for regulators, and have been measured in significantly elevated levels in the soils around the factories. The EPA is also questioning state regulators and their interpretations of federal regulations, as well as their enforcement practices.

Initially, the factories thought they were exempt from more stringent regulations, but pressure on the state’s Department of Environmental Quality by the EPA and local residents has brought about a new understanding of federal emissions requirements. In addition, the EPA is reviewing emissions data from about 15 other art glass factories around the country that use similar production practices.

About half of the factories that are the subject of enhanced EPA scrutiny are located in the Midwest and on the East Coast. The remainder are clustered in Oregon and Washington State. The EPA has not yet concluded its investigation of the factories, but many glassmakers point out that their production processes do not violate federal laws.

Glassprimer™ glass paint provides an excellent alternative to colored glass. Glassprimer™ glass paint comes in a wide range of colors and creates a permanent bond with the glass surface. In addition, Glassprimer™ glass paint comes in both oil-based and water-based formulations. Our water-based formulation cleans up with water, and both formulations are low-odor, low-VOC compounds.

If you’d like more information about working with Glassprimer™ glass paint, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Kenn Kiser , via FreeImages.com

MIT researchers demo 3-D glass printing

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MIT Researchers demo 3-D glass printing

Photo credit: Steven Keating, MIT

3-D printing has risen to the forefront of prototyping and rapid manufacturing, but glass hasn’t worked out very well as a printing medium. Some systems can use powdered glass with certain 3-D printing techniques, but the finished product isn’t transparent like glass. Researchers at MIT have changed that, however, by demonstrating a new 3-D printing technique that uses molten glass to “print” a 3-dimensional object, layer by layer.

Glass printing could have architectural applications

The molten glass must leave the printing nozzle at a temperature that exceeds 1,000° C. To make sure the glass remains hot enough to work, the researchers developed a printer with multi-stage heating coils that keep the glass properly heated at each point of the production process. Once the glass has exited the printing nozzle, the object is built in a heated chamber that maintains a temperature just above the point where glass solidifies. By keeping the glass heated after printing, the researchers can control the cooling process, which allows the printed piece to cool gradually without breaking.

The printing nozzle is made from aluminum oxide. It can withstand the high temperatures and discourage the molten glass from sticking to it during production. Currently the researchers are working with soda-lime glass formulations, but in theory, the process could also be used to create tempered glass items. For a tempered printing process to be successful, the printer would have to be able to work with glass heated to a much higher temperature.

The process could also be used to create architectural glass with specific properties, like light transmission. Traditional float glass has smooth interior features, which allow light and solar radiation to be transmitted easily. A 3-D printed piece of glass could have internal features that control the transmission and distribution of light more effectively.

Don’t expect 3-D glass printing to move to the production stage anytime soon, though. According to MIT researchers, they want to work with different production techniques, including the addition of pressure to the molten glass stream to better control the flow, and give more precision to the resulting printed glass object.

At Glassprimer™, we don’t print glass, but we do provide the perfect coating for glass. If you’d like more information about decorating with glass paint, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .