Energy & Curtain Walling Presentantion

Energy and Curtain Walling Lessons from a recent past

Ignacio Fernรกndez Solla Facades + New York. April 25 2014

1880s to 1940s The pre-history of lightweight facades

Unknown building under construction, Chicago 1880s

Reliance Building, Chicago Daniel Burnham, 1890

Reliance Building, Chicago Daniel Burnham, 1889

What about New York?

Edgar Laing Stores, New York James Bogardus, 1849

1871 101 Spring St., New York Nicholas Whyte Store and office building

1912 14 Wall St., New York Bankers Trust Company Bldg Trowbridge & Livingston Office building

Woolworth Building, New York Cass Gilbert, 1913

Woolworth Building, New York Cass Gilbert, 1913

Empire Estate Building, New York Shreve, Lamb & Harmond, 1931

Starrett Lehigh Building, New York Cory, Cory & Matsui, 1931

1931 Starrett Lehigh Building, New York RG & WM Cory architects, Purdy & Henderson engineers Concrete slab edge, brick parapet and glass.

Warehouse and office building

1830s to 1940s Thermal insulation: building scientists and manufacturers

JEAN CL. EUGENE PECLET 1793-1857 French physicist. In his book "Traité de la Chaleur et de ses Applications aux Arts et Aux Manufactures" (1829) described heat flow and coined the concept of U-factor for envelopes.

From “A study of the Heat Transmission of Building Materials”, Willard & Litchy 1917

1840s to 1940s Thermal insulation: building scientists and manufacturers

Lightweight (but thermally conscious) proposals from the 30s

From two articles by Kocher & Frey in The Architectural Record , April 1933 and January 1934

1940s Understanding thermal flows through walls‌

1940s ‌ and the cost implications of good vs. bad insulation

1940s and 1950s Metal curtain walls come to the fore

1940s and 1950s Metal curtain walls

1948 Equitable Building, Portland Pietro Belluschi

1948 Equitable Building, Portland Pietro Belluschi

1948 Equitable Building, Portland Pietro Belluschi

1949 100 Park Ave, New York Kahn & Jacobs White brick stripes , glass and aluminum window wall.

Office building

1951 525 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh Harrison & Abramovitz

From storefronts to “show windows”…

Kawneer advert in The Architectural Record , May 1950.

Herpolsheimer’s Department Store in Grand Rapids Michigan.

Perry, Shaw and Hepburn architects.

Described as a “giant four-story show window”

‌to curtain walls

Image of the UN Secretariat Building before construction.

From a Barrett advert in The Architectural Record , May 1950

1952 Lever House, NYC Skidmore Owings and Merrill

1952 Lever House, NYC Skidmore Owings and Merrill

1952 Lever House, NYC Skidmore Owings and Merrill

The Reliance Building vs. the Lever House. A quantum leap?

Energy: too cheap to meter?

"Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter... It is not too much to expect that our children will (‌) travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speeds, and will experience a lifespan far longer than ours, as disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him to age."

Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, 1954 speech to the National Association of Science Writers.

1954 99 Park Avenue, New York

Opportunities for curtain wall recladding – lessons to be learnt