Ahead of the Curve: Innovative Cold Bent & Insulated Glass Entry Wall

Abstract

The owner of a 1970s, 24-story commercial office tower in Ottawa, Canada sought to rejuvenate their main lobby with a new glass entry wall.  The wall’s purpose is to provide a notable, grand entryway for the re-development of a commercial podium on a main thoroughfare.  The final design featured a 12 m tall by 35 m long curving glass fin wall.  The height of the wall is broken up into two sections. The first is a 9 m tall section between the ground floor and a third-floor terrace that provides the main building with a new front entrance, including a double-height space. The second is a cantilevered 3 m tall balustrade that creates a new third floor terrace.  The glass fins between the ground floor and third floor terrace are continuous, triple-laminated panels free of splices.  The curved panels have a 30 m curvature radius and feature a ceramic frit to prevent bird strikes and promote environmental sensitivity.  In addition, the panels are insulated glass units (IGUs) with a low-emissivity coating (low-e) to meet the City of Ottawa’s energy standards and the expected interior comfort of top tier retail and office space within the city.  Furthermore, the glass panels are supported at discrete points, so the team used a composite resin as the laminate for the interior and exterior lites to maintain the cold bent curvature radius.