Fa?ade Design & Delivery conference addresses performance considerations

Nearly 100 AEC industry leaders gathered for the inaugural Fa?ade Design & Delivery conference in New York City the last week of January, according to a Feb. 7 release. Enclos Corp., Eagan, Minn.,sponsored the three-day event. Topics ranged from fa?ade sustainability to BIM and the building fa?ade, and the presenters came from the U.S. General Services Administration and high-profile architectural firms.

Material choice was a primary topic at the conference. A local team from Perkins+Will, led by Technical Director Calvin Smith, presented a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the materials used in the building fa?ade. Included was a glass performance matrix that logged various performance attributes against available glass products. Tim Macfarlane, design partner at Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners, discussed the evolution of glass as a structural material, including the latest innovations and applications of glass structures.

Two presenters talked aboutdouble skin facades. Neil McClelland, principal and fa?ade engineer at Arup, discussed the potential of adding a second skin, or over-clad, as a fa?ade retrofit strategy and a means to improve both energy efficiency and building aesthetics. Kerry Hegedus, senior associate at NBBJ, showcased several examples of double skin facades he had worked on, while also calling into question the increasingly frequent application of double skins, its cost-effectiveness and sustainability.

Read the full release.