Cornell University Gates Hall

The high-performance, structurally-glazed thermally-broken curtain wall system consisted of roughly 600 unitized frames and 35,000-square-feet of glass. The prefabricated unitized curtain wall system was erected first, with anchor plates and panel assemblies being installed onto the facade in the field afterwards. The main challenge with the system was in the design and coordination of connections and panel assemblies. Zahner and W&W worked very close with the architect to make sure the panels did not overlap and run into each other.

Location 107 Hoy Road Ithaca, New York
Building Type
Architect Morphosis
Owner/Developer Cornell University
Construction Manager/General Contractor Welliver
Installer W&W Glass, LLC
Materials
Unitized Curtain Wall, Custom Perforated Metal Panel Wall, Interior Glazing

Products:

Erie Architectural Products Custom Unitized Curtain Wall, Zahner Custom Perforated Metal Panel System, Orange PVB Laminated Glass Interior Atrium Walls
Project Highlights
The high-performance, structurally-glazed thermally-broken curtain wall system consisted of roughly 600 unitized frames and 35,000-square-feet of glass. The prefabricated unitized curtain wall system was erected first, with anchor plates and panel assemblies being installed onto the facade in the field afterwards. The main challenge with the system was in the design and coordination of connections and panel assemblies. Zahner and W&W worked very close with the architect to make sure the panels did not overlap and run into each other. Zahner did an excellent job of helping to rationalize the panel assemblies to reduce variations to a limited number of panel sizes with most modifications kept to stand-off lengths and angle of tilt on the panels. Some other scope areas that posed challenges were the serpentine curved insulating glass eye-shaped entrance and the offset cylindrical interior digitally-printed structural glass wall. The curved entrance had to be laid out very carefully to accommodate the proper splay with patterned-shaped insulating glass units. The orange fritted laminated glass cylinder was four-sided silicone butt-glazed like other walls inside, but presented an engineering challenge for layout. W&W used Rhino modeling software to help better understand the complex shapes that need to be fabricated. Since this was a Design-Assist project, W&W worked together very closely with the project team and vendors to try and resolve many conflicts up front before there were issues in the field. This was imperative to the success of the project.