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