Glass Industry Giving Architects a Good Look at AIA

 Glass and fenestration industry companies continued their marathon of interaction with architects Friday at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Convention and Expo in Philadelphia this week.

Glass industry exhibitors such as ONYX Solar were busy on the show floor Friday.

The industry has maintained a presence throughout the show floor and is drawing plenty of attention from the designers and decision-makers that specify their products.

Photovoltaic (PV) glass manufacturer ONYX Solar has been able to show off to architects its growing portfolio of projects, having completed more than 30 worldwide in 2015.

And the timing for the company couldn’t be better, as the new Apple flagship store in San Francisco—which features 42-by-40-foot sliding glass doors—opened today. The new building’s roof is clad entirely with ONYX’s photovoltaic glass.

“It’s running on 100 percent renewable energy,” said vice president of global business development Diego Cuevas, “and much of that is from our PV glass.”

He said architects are feeling increasingly confident about implementing the company’s PV glass with so many renowned design firms and innovative companies applying it in their projects.

ONYX is also responding to the demand for larger lites of glass and is adding a larger laminator that can go beyond its current 10-by-5-foot offerings.

“We follow the market trends, and one of those is larger glass,” said Cuevas. “… We try to be as successful as possible.”

Across the show floor, the word “contemporary” has been repeated, particularly in the commercial and high-end residential door and window arena. This has been reflected in the widespread display of dark-colored products.

Solar Innovations, in fact, did a “blackout” for its booth, in which every single product displayed is in black. EFCO Pella is also putting a focus on this color trend.

“Deeper and darker seem to be the buzzwords,” said Ply Gem Windows vice president of marketing Mark S. Montgomery.

Ply Gem has its booth set up to simulate the environment of a contemporary home, office and café—hence its theme “Live, Work, Play.”

Montgomery said the three things he typically discusses with architects at AIA can be summed up to design, functionality and performance. The company, which is displaying its vinyl window products, also has a section demonstrating its new software models for Building Information Modeling.

Elsewhere at the show, DuoGard is talking to architects about its translucent wall systems and its Sleekline canopies, which it developed with Covestro. The company is discussing its modeling capabilities for daylighting, a critical element in modern-day building design.

Other industry companies have joint spaces at the show. Tubelite and Linetec are exhibiting together, with Linetec showcasing its antimicrobial coating on a Tubelite entrance system, in addition to many other offerings. The coating can be applied in more than 30,000 color choices for “high-touch” architectural metal product surfaces in places such as a hospital intensive care unit.