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The Presidential Library of the William J.
Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas (building
dedication: November 2004). President Clinton had requested an open,
accessible, daylight-filled building with high energy efficiency and
overall environmentally-responsible construction that would serve as a
“bridge to the 21st century”, according to the Clinton Foundation. The
use of laminated glass throughout the Library helped it win a LEED™
Silver Certification for energy and environmental design, awarded by
the U.S. Green Building Council.
Viracon routinely advises architects to use insulating laminated glass
in public buildings for several reasons. First, laminated glass
displays the best safety, strength, and impact (blast) resistance of
any type of glass. Laminated glass offers protection in the event of a
blast by allowing broken glass fragments to adhere to the plastic
interlayer rather than spraying building ccupants. Laminated glass
with high performance interlayers like SentryGlas® Plus structural
interlayer can play an even more important role in public buildings
because they can withstand greater impact load and blast pressure.
Another reason that we recommend insulated laminated glass for public
buildings is its energy efficiency. Depending upon the climate,
insulating laminated glass units with a Viracon Solarscreen® Low-E
coating on the #2 surface can improve the thermal performance of the
glass as much as 50 percent.
Lastly, we recommend laminated glass for use in civic architecture
because of the material’s ability to reduce noise and block out UV
rays. Insulating laminated glass can reduce noise transmission by
approximately 20% compared to standard insulating glass – a quality
particularly appreciated by architects designing airports. It also
blocks out the UV rays that damages the valuable documents and
artifacts often stored in public buildings, whether art galleries,
museums or courthouses, by up to 99 percent.
Laminated glass was specifically designed to mitigate the effects of a
bomb-blast attack for the U.S. Courthouse in Gulfport, Minnesota. R.
M. Kliment & Frances Halsband Architects, in collaboration with local
architects Canizaro Cawthon Davis, used approximately 37,000 square
feet of insulating laminated glass with a Solarscreen® Low-E coating
for this building. In addition, the insulated laminated glass used
displays high thermal and solar energy performance by incorporating a
Low-E coating, a custom silkscreen pattern. These factors helped to
significantly reduce energy costs within the building.
Polshek Partnership Architects of New York specified 34,000 square
feet of insulating laminated glass for the Presidential Library at the
William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. The
challenge for this west-facing building, cantilevered over the river,
was that the glass had to be clear and transparent, while also being
highly functional in terms of energy performance and other factors.
Here again, high performance, insulated laminated glass with a
Solarscreen® Low-E coating provided the solution. Glare was minimized
so that museum visitors could easily view the exhibits. The insulating
laminated glass also effectively blocks out UV ray penetration to
National Archive standards, protecting the artifacts in the library.
Most importantly, the laminated glass used in the Clinton Library was
designed for the reduction of solar heat gain. This led to substantial
energy efficiency savings, helping the Clinton Library to win a LEED™
Silver Certification for energy and environmental design – a fact that
was proudly cited by President Clinton when he officially opened the
Library in November 2004.
New airports use insulated laminated glass extensively as it is
considered the best type of glass for sound reduction. For the San
Francisco Airport, architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill focused on
designing a stable and protective building that could withstand the
significant seismic activity of the region. Laminated glass offers the
best protection of any type of glass in an earthquake zone; its use at
the San Francisco airport meant that the architects’ specifications
regarding both sound reduction and seismic protection were met in this
impressive public building.
Global glass fabricator Viracon of Owatonna, Minnesota (USA) has more
than 30 years’ experience in advising architects on the type of
glazing to use in all types of projects, worldwide. |
