As promised here is a picture of the US Bank building I am currently working on. Basically the entire elevation in view is brand new curtain wall and glazing. The old building only had one terrace level, the new version has three different terrace levels. One particular element that I love about this building is hard to see in the pictures, but the handrails at each of the terrace levels are actually part of the curtainwall. This could lend to some thermal problems down the line as the inside of the building is always exposed to the elements in this type of system, however it is a very cool architectual feauture. I hope to have some more pictures from standing on top one of the terraces. This one was shot from the dome of the Capital.
8 comments:
Very cool, B. Kind of confused about the issue with the railing, though. Are you saying that there is a gap between the front of the floor of the terrace and the back of the curtain wall / handrail that allows the elements to get behind the curtain wall below the terraces? Can't you just run a bead of caulk down that bastard? I know a guy.
Tk,
There is nothing exposed on the inside to the weather. However with the vertical mullion extending passed the roof you have about 10% of the vertical mullion exposed to weather. The way a CW works is you have the mullion, a thermal seperator, and then the glass, with pressure plate and cover to hold the glass to the mullion. When the back of the mullion is exposed to weather like it is on these terraces, it is in essence bridging the thermal break, and allowing for cold to transfer down the back of the tube. The problem is when you keep the inside temps at 75 degrees and the outside temps reach negative numbers you are opening yourself up to condensation to occur on the inside. The owner of this building is well aware of the issue, but I doubt he will be pleased if there is frost on the inside of the glass during the winter. One way they are countering this problem is forcing warm air on the inside of the CW to keep the tube from freezing, however I still think it could be an issue.
Very cool pics browne, I wish that I could have gotten on that job for bit. The handrail issue definitely seems like it could be a problem. I'm sure they are going to be asking questions this winter on why it is doing that.
Jake
I think I get it.
It seems to an outsider like me that there should be a way to get the same type of look with a separate glass railing sitting on top of the curtain wall, with some kind of thermal barrier between the railing and the CW to avoid that heat loss. Especially since there is a transom every few feet, what's one more break at the base of the railing?
Let me know when you get that worked out. We'll apply for a patent.
There are definately plenty of ways to do a handrail with different extrusions that would make it standalone from the wall below. However on this project it is kind of tricky becuase a large portion of the building was staying intact and we had to have special dies made in order to match the mullions. Since the handrail ties into the vertical face of the building as well, the owner really wanted to keep the sight lines the same. Must handrails would be just as you said kept seperate from CW structure. We could have done that by adding another horizontal mullion (think a CW on top of a CW) but again the sight line wouldnt match up. It was detailed by an architect and we showed them that it is most likely going to be an issue, but they didnt care. They are spending millions of dollars on this building you think performance would override look, but that is rarely the case with architects and designers. 11 months out of the year, it should perform just fine.
So they wanted the horizontal lines on the terrace railings to line up perfectly with the horizontal lines on the flat faces of the building behind the terraces? Sissies.
Browne the job is not complete until you do the squished worm on everyone of those windows.
Drove by this on Tuesday after the Brass Ring. Very nice design! Let me know if you can set up a tour sometime.
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