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Iconic Glass Structures – Sage Gateshead

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Iconic Glass Structures – Sage Gateshead

Iconic Glass Structures – Sage Gateshead

This week, we look at Sage Gateshead, a glass and steel concert venue in Gateshead, UK. The building opened in 2004, and is currently leased to the North Music Trust. The uniquely styled building is part of a larger arts complex, which also includes the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

While Sage Gateshead hosts its share of chamber music performances, the venue also serves musicians in a wide range of genres. The building was designed by Foster and Parters, which presented the winning design in a competition. Although the building did not open until 2004, planning for the space began more than 10 years prior to its inaugural performance. The final construction cost exceeded $86 million, and was paid for largely through government grants.

Initially intended as a chamber music performance hall, Sage Gateshead morphed into a more flexible venue to accommodate regional performers and a variety of musical styles. The venue has hosted classical, pop, rock, hip hop, jazz, indie and acoustical performances.

The building houses two main performance halls that seat 1,750 and 450 guests respectively. Sage Gateshead also has a smaller rehearsal facility. The three performance spaces are key to the rest of the building’s design. The rest of the building’s facilities were designed to accommodate the acoustics of the performance spaces.

While the complex is housed under a single glass and steel skin, the interior of the building reveals three distinct buildings under one roof. The glass and steel outer structure does not actually touch any of the three performance spaces. In addition, the interior buildings were constructed using a special, acoustic-friendly concrete mixture. Ceiling panels and curtains in the buildings can be moved or adjusted to change the acoustic profile of a performance space. Spaces are reconfigured based on the type of musical performance.

Aside from the performance spaces, the building also houses the Music Education Centre, where students of all skill levels take instrumental music lessons. The Music Education Centre also offers workshops and public programs. The building also houses a recording studio, a community space and a public audio library.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Wojtek Gurak , via Flickr.com

Iconic Glass Structures – Philharmonic Hall, Szczecin, Poland

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Iconic Glass Structures – Philharmonic Hall, Szczecin, Poland

Iconic Glass Structures – Philharmonic Hall, Szczecin, Poland

Philharmonic Hall in Szczecin, Poland was opened in 2014 as the second home of the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic Orchestra, which was founded in 1948. The building received the 2015 Mies van der Rohe Award, the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture. The building’s unique translucent ribbed glass façade and multi-pointed roofline give the building a visually striking, ghost-like appearance.

The building was built as a permanent replacement for the Konzerthaus, a building that was destroyed during World War II. The Philharmonic Hall is built on the former site of the Konzerthaus.The architects, Barozzi Veiga, of Spain, designed the building to blend in with much older existing structures that had survived the war. The building is 13,000 square meters and its exterior is covered with glass panels.

While the shape of the building was designed to complement existing structures, the translucent glass cladding and aluminum stripping allows the building to stand out. During the day, the building appears to be opaque white. At night, the lights from the hall illuminate the building, giving it a warm glow. The interior of the building makes heavy use of white. The majority of the interior is white. The symphony hall and the chamber music hall are two exceptions. The symphonic hall is predominantly gold. The chamber music room is mostly black.

The building – minus the symphonic space – is lit by skylights and natural light during the day. The auditorium is sculpted to enhance the orchestral experience. In addition, the building also has a smaller space for chamber music and spaces for conferences and exhibitions. The orchestra hall seats about 950 guests. The chamber music room seats about 200 guests.

The history of Szczecin is long and complicated, but the city was given to Poland in 1945 as a reparation for land lost to the Soviet Union. Most of the city’s population at that time left the city, and Poles resettled there following the war. The majority of the city’s residents would have no recollection of the original Konzerthaus, but welcome the Philharmonic Hall as a part of the city’s evolution.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Maciek Lulko, via Flickr.com

Iconic Glass Structures – Aldar Headquarters

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Iconic Glass Structures – Aldar Headquarters

Iconic Glass Structures – Aldar Headquarters

This week, we look at the Aldar Headquarters (also spelled Al Dar) in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The circular glass building was completed in 2010 and rises 110 meters above grade. If you’re thinking that the building is a round tower, you’re not thinking about this correctly. It looks more like a glass and steel Oreo standing on its side.

The building features 23 interior floors, but because of its unique design and size, it offers about the same floor space as a 40-story building. The completed structure offers about 62,000 square meters of office space, and the building can hold 120,000 people at one time. The outer façades curve, but they’re actually created from a series of triangular flat glass pieces. The façades face east and west to allow sunlight to penetrate the building.

Despite the significant sun exposure, the building earned a silver LEED certification, and features efficient lighting and water systems. In addition, the building features a vacuum-based waste disposal system. Refuse is vacuum-extracted from the building and deposited in a nearby waste transfer station.

The glass and steel building design was influenced by a fanciful design drafted by French architect Etienne-Louis Boullee in 1784 as an homage to Sir Isaac Newton. The Cenotaph for Newton was never built or attempted. The working design for the Aldar Headquarters was created by MZ Architects. Principle architect Marwan Zgheib said he modeled his design for the building after a clam shell, since Abu Dhabi is heavily influenced by its proximity to the sea.

The building was the first diagrid structure to be built in the UAE. The diagrid construction eliminates the need for support columns. This in turn opens a wide range of options for the building’s interior design.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store.

Photo Credit: Ahmed Al Harthi, via Flickr.com

Iconic Glass Structures – R&F Yingkai Square

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Iconic Glass Structures – R&F Yingkai Square

Iconic Glass Structures – R&F Yingkai Square

This week, we look at R&F Yingkai Square a newly constructed glass and steel tower in the Guangzhou Province in Zujiang. Its shifty shape is a visual treat because it’s a departure from the standard “four square” building. The tower is a mixed-use environment, and it’s nearly full.

The tower’s design is inspired by bamboo plants. It features asymmetrical “corners” that, when combined with the steel strips on the outside faces, make the building appear to move. The steel facing at the base gives way to glass at top of the building. The change in texture and the building’s faceted corners draw the eye ever upward, also lending to the notion of a building in motion.

The building tenants include the Park Hyatt Guangzhou on the upper floors, and a host of offices on the lower floors. The building also includes residential spaces. The tower extends 66 floors (nearly 1,000 feet) up and five floors below grade, and overlooks the Pearl River. Hotel guests can take advantage of spectacular views from the hotel’s infinity pool, and enjoy a meal in the hotel’s rooftop eatery and garden.

R&F Yingkai Square is currently the 9th tallest building in Guangzhou and the 49th tallest structure in China. It’s brand new construction, having been designed by Goettsch Partners of Chicago in 2008. Construction on the building was completed in 2014 and the building was formally opened earlier this year.

The building is owned by Guangzhou R&F Properties Co., Ltd., which also provided structural engineering services and was the primary contractor for the building’s construction.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store.

Photo Credit: 1st image via CTBUH

Iconic Glass Structures – Lipstick Building

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Iconic Glass Structures – Lipstick Building

Iconic Glass Structures – Lipstick Building

New York City is known for its skyscrapers, but one of its most iconic buildings really isn’t that tall. Standing in at a relatively modest 34 floors is Manhattan’s 53rd at Third Building, known more informally as the Lipstick Building. Located at 885 3rd Avenue, the building is a steel, granite and glass structure that was completed in 1986.

Designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee, the building earned its nickname based on its stacked, rounded shape and red color, which are reminiscent of a tube of lipstick. The building’s unusual rounded shape takes up less space than a traditional square footprint. Additionally, the rounded base, along with support columns, provide additional pedestrian space in a tightly packed urban landscape.

The building is “stacked” in four sections to allow sunlight to penetrate to the lower floors. Unlike contemporary buildings, that are made predominantly from steel and glass, the building features ribbon windows and bright red, enamelized steel that coils around the building.

One of the building’s most famous tenants was none other than Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, which occupied floors 17, 18 and 19. Although the firm leased three floors, Madoff’s $65 million fraudulent Ponzi scheme was run exclusively from the 17th floor – a space that was occupied by about two dozen of Madoff’s closest employees.

The building’s designers, John Burgee and Philip Johnson occupied the building for about five years, beginning in 1986. Their partnership split apart in 1991, and Johnson elected to occupy a different space in the building. The building has changed ownership a number of times since it opened. In 2010, the building was foreclosed on by the Royal Bank of Canada after the owner at the time – Metropolitan 885 LLC – defaulted on a $210 million loan.

Earlier this year, the ground underneath the building was sold for nearly a half-billion dollars. While this arrangement sounds like a little bit of real estate intrigue, the building’s operator had an option to buy the land under the building at certain prescribed points in the lease. The building operator still maintains the option to buy the land and can exercise it once every 10 years, beginning in 2020, the owner of the land has changed. If the operator does not elect to buy the land, the land owner can renegotiate the lease rates for the building.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store.

Photo Credit: Demitri Parides, via Flickr.com

No bird safe glass in Chicago suburb

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No bird-safe glass in Chicago suburb

No bird safe glass in Chicago suburb

Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago announced last month that it will not require new construction to use bird safe glass. City council members had been considering the measure, but decided that requiring bird safe glass might stifle development projects that involved new construction.

According to wildlife experts, birds cannot decipher reflections of sky and trees in glass structures. Birds fly into the structures, which annually account for anywhere between 100 million to nearly a billion bird deaths. About 50% of all bird-window collisions are fatal.

Highland Park mayor Nancy Rotering said that the city has not abandoned the concept of using bird safe glass, but will attempt to educate architects and contractors about the value of taking a conservation approach to new building projects. The issue of bird conservancy is important because Highland Park is a north-south migratory pathway for a large number of bird species in the Great Lakes area. The city’s proximity to water means that a large number of birds congregate in the area in the summer time.

The city’s Natural Resource Commission and the Plan and Design Commission both supported the proposal. Initially, the city had considered requiring developers to meet the bird friendly standards specified by the Green Building Council’s LEED certification program.

The city council heard evidence from other cities that have put bird-friendly glass requirements in place. Those cities include Oakland, San Francisco and Sunnyvale, CA and Toronto, Ontario. According to officials in those cities, the bird friendly glass requirements have not had a measurable impact on staff workload or even development plans.

A number of techniques are identified as “bird safe.” One of the most common is striping that is applied to windows no more than 10 inches apart. The pattern allows birds to “see” the building as a solid object. In addition, screens and other design elements that break up reflections can also decrease bird deaths.

Glassprimer™ glass paint makes a UV-inkjet glass surface primer that prepares glass surfaces for UV-inkjet printing. The molecular activator allows inkjet printing to adhere permanently to the glass surface, and can be used in both interior and exterior applications.

For more information about Glassprimer™ glass surface molecular activator, or Glassprimer™ paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store

Photo Credit: Steve, via Flickr.com

Iconic Glass Structures – Bahrain World Trade Centre

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Iconic Glass Structures – Bahrain World Trade Centre

Iconic Glass Structures – Bahrain World Trade Centre

The Bahrain World Trade Centre is a 50-story, glass-sheathed, twin tower building located in Manama, Bahrain. The sail-shaped towers incorporate wind turbines into three skywalks that connect the towers. The turbines catch incoming winds from the Persian Gulf, and can each generate 225 kW of power. The turbines, which measure nearly 100 feet in diameter, were estimated produce about 10%-15% of the electricity consumed by the tower occupants at the time of the building’s construction.

The London-based architectural firm Atkins designed the Bahrain World Trade Centre, and construction was completed in 2008. The design has won numerous awards for sustainability. The Bahrain World Trade Centre was the first tall building in the world to incorporate wind turbines into its design. Atkins used extensive wind-flow data from the site to determine the buildings’ final shape. The shape of the building maximizes wind flow between the towers, which optimizes the power output of the turbines.

The slope of the towers distributes airflow evenly to the turbines, which allows them to rotate at the same speed and generate similar power. Although the design projections estimated that the turbines would generate a maximum of 15% of the building’s electrical demand, actual operation shows that the turbines generate significantly more than the design projection. The positioning of the building has raised debate among architects, some of whom believe that if the buildings had been built in the exact opposite configuration, the turbines could have generated an additional 15% more power. Repositioning the turbines could have allowed them to generate 30% more power, making the building nearly completely self-sustaining.

The World Trade Centre is integrated into an existing hotel complex. Retail space and restaurants are also in operation on the towers lowest floors. The building features 45 occupied aboveground floors and one below-grade floor. Additional stories at the top of the tower are not occupied.

The building superstructure, which is made of steel and concrete, makes liberal use of glass in all occupied spaces, as well as public spaces and in the skywalks between towers. The low-emissivity glass reduces solar heat gain in the interior spaces. A buffer separates the interior space from the building’s exterior, also to reduce heat buildup. Chilled water cools the building’s interior, and reflecting pools provide evaporative cooling at ground level. The building’s low-leakage windows are operable.

If you’re looking for some additional glass inspiration, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Photos By Clark , via Flickr.com

Iconic Glass structures – 30 St Mary Axe

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Iconic Glass structures - 30 St Mary Axe

Iconic Glass structures – 30 St Mary Axe

Another entry in our series of Iconic Glass Structures is 30 St. Mary Axe in London. This 41-story commercial building is located in the financial district. Designed by architect Norman Foster and built by Skanska, the building was opened in 2004 on the site of two former buildings that were razed after being badly damaged by an IRA bomb. The building was originally designed for insurance firm Swiss Re, but today it serves a number of diverse tenants.

30 St. Mary Axe, named after the building’s address, is informally known as The Gherkin because of its distinctive shape. The building, which has a circular floor plan, tapers as it rises, and appears to come to a point. The building’s curved appearance is deceptive. The glass panels on the outside are all flat, with a single exception at building’s top. It is extremely energy efficient. Its unique design provides natural ventilation and natural lighting, and incorporates passive solar heat in the winter.

30 St. Mary Axe has won numerous architectural awards and quickly became an iconic landmark in London. The building was sold in 2014 to its current owners for 700 million pounds, making it the most expensive commercial property in London. A number of highly visible clients lease space in the building. In addition, the building provides space for retailers and restaurants.

30 St. Mary Axe has more than 150,000 square feet of office and retail space. Unlike many commercial designs, 30 St. Mary Axe does not rely on central columns for internal support. This allows the office spaces to incorporate open floor plans. The 40th floor of the building hosts a bar with 360° views of the city.

With all tall buildings, wind can cause them to sway. To control sway, many buildings employ braces or dampers to counteract forces generated by the wind. The design of 30 St. Mary Axe makes it sufficiently stiff to resist wind-induced sway, so the building does not have any additional bracing or dampers to control wind movement.

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next glass project, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Aurelien Guichard , via Flickr.com

Iconic Glass structures – Beeld en Geluid

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Iconic Glass structures - Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision

Iconic Glass structures – Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision

The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Beeld en Geluid) is a Dutch cultural museum that collects and archives Dutch media, located in Hilversum, Noord-Holland. Currently, the museum’s collection exceeds 1,000,000 hours of film, video and audio recordings of Dutch cultural significance. The oldest recordings date to 1898.

Building employs unique glass printed panels

The 21,500 square-foot museum is cube-shaped, only half of which sits above ground. The building, designed by Architectenburo Neutelings Riedijk, is clad in 2,100 multicolored glass panels. Dutch graphic artist Jaap Drupsteen designed the building’s façade.

The panels are not simply colored glass. They contain nearly 750 relief images that were printed using a process that took three years to develop. The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) developed the printing process and equipment. French glass manufacturer Saint Gobain Glass was instrumental in producing the panels over a six-month period.

The images were randomly chosen from among the museum’s collection, and were digitally printed onto the glass panels using a unique powder printing process that combined digital printing and slumping. The images are UV resistant and have proven to be exceptionally durable.

The powder printing process involved the deposition of red, yellow and blue colored glass powder, using a specially developed printer. The process also requires special software that converts an image’s cyan, magenta and yellow colors into the proper amounts of the colored glass powder. The process deposits the colored glass in three separate layers, and then heated to the point of melting. When the powders melt, they produce the desired color and the relief in clear glass.

The museum project was completed in 2006, and consists of the museum and offices, a shop, a theater, parking spaces, and a green roof that covers the underground parking structure. A multilevel pond with fountains and waterfalls provides a significant water reservoir for firefighting, should it become necessary to protect the museum’s collection.

If you’d like inspiration for your glass project, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Pieter van Marion, via Flickr.com

Iconic glass structures – Basque Health Dept

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Iconic glass structures - Basque Health Department Headquarters

Iconic glass structures – Basque Health Department Headquarters

What do you do when you need to expand a building in Bilbao, but you’re confronted with a patchwork quilt of building codes that restrict what you can do with the building’s design? You design a double-skinned glass and steel addition. The outside of the Basque Health Department in Bilbao shows an exterior that meets the local building code requirements, and an interior that meets the needs of the building’s occupants.

Glass and steel construction offers energy efficiency

The quirky building extension, which is required to have setbacks, walls that conform to those of neighboring buildings, and a tower, was designed by Coll-Barreu Arquitectos and has quickly become a landmark structure. The original building was designed in 1862, and the original structure – along with its neighbors – was designed in the style of that time. The addition was proposed in 2003 – 2004 and construction began in December 2004. The project was completed in February 2008.

The double-façade approach comes with additional benefits beyond simply meeting local design requirements. The glass and steel façade significantly reduces street noise in the building, because the double skin acts as a sound insulator. It also improves the building’s fire safety and reduces solar heat gain in the working interior of the building, making the addition highly energy efficient. The seven-story addition sits atop a three-level underground parking lot.

The outer façade of the building has a folded, almost random appearance, and is made of glass and tubular steel. The exterior skin isn’t tightly sealed, which allows the space between the inner and outer façades to “breathe.” The angled exterior glass controls the ability of UV-radiation to penetrate the interior façade, which reduces the amount of heat that accumulates in the working structure during the day. The building also features a two-story glass atrium and a roof deck, both of which are used for meetings and events.

The exterior façade uses laminated glass made of three distinct layers – glass, a layer of PVB, and a layer of low-e SunGuard glass by Guardian Industries. The interior façade features double-paned windows made of float glass and low-e laminated Neutralite glass, also made by Guardian Industries.

The Basque Health Department features one interesting way to design with glass. You can also bring glass into your own living and working space. Glassprimer™ glass paint creates a wide variety of opportunities to put glass to work as a decorating surface in both residential and commercial settings. If you’re looking for glass inspiration, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Wojtek Gurak, via FreeImages.com