Acid-etched, solar control low-e glass to provide views, bird-safety, energy performance
Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG Glass) announced that it will sponsor the installation of bird-friendly glass on the new Garden Room under construction at the National Aviary located in Pittsburgh and continue to financially support the National Aviary’s 2020 school field trip program.
Known formally as “The Garden Room at the National Aviary,” the new venue will offer sweeping views of Allegheny Commons Park and an historic rose garden, while providing flexible wedding, corporate and classroom space. Solarban® 72 Acuity® solar control, low-emissivity (low-e) and low-iron glass by Vitro Glass will be installed in insulating glass units (IGUs) on all four sides of the structure. The IGUs will be fabricated with Walker Glass’ AviProtek® E acid-etched bird-safe glass (Pattern 213) on the first (outdoor-facing) surface.
Emily Losego (far left) and Dan Sutton (left) of Vitro Architectural Glass view a sample of Solarban 72 Acuity glass featuring Pattern 213, a bird-safe acid-etched visual marker designed by Walker Glass that enables birds to see glass and avoid colliding with it. The solar control, low-e, low-iron glass will be used on The Garden Room at the National Aviary, which broke ground on December 19. Cheryl Tracy (right) executive director of the National Aviary is joined by Anthony Pitassi (far right), principal, Perfido, Weiskopf, Wagstaff + Goettel, whose firm designed the building and specified the glass. Photo courtesy of Vitro Architectural Glass
During the groundbreaking ceremony, Cheryl Tracy, executive director of the National Aviary, said Vitro Glass has become a vital partner in the organization’s educational mission and in ensuring that America’s premier indoor bird-zoo remains a world-class facility.
“In choosing glass for The Garden Room, it was critical that our selection be bird-friendly,” Tracy explained. “We also wanted glass with an elegant, understated pattern that will allow our guests to appreciate the beautiful outdoor amenities from the new event space year-round. We have found that perfect balance thanks to the experts at Vitro Architectural Glass.
“We also appreciate the generous financial contributions that Vitro Glass continues to make to encourage and enable thousands of local schoolchildren to visit our site and take advantage of our educational programs.”
The Garden Room is the second National Aviary project Vitro Glass has sponsored in the past three years. In 2018, the glass dome covering the facility’s popular Tropical Rainforest habitat was completely replaced, pane-by-pane, with 19,600-square-feet of Starphire Ultra-Clear® glass with bird-friendly acid-etched glass by Walker Glass. Vitro Glass provided materials, as well as technical and financial support for the $1.2 million project.
Solarban 72 Acuity glass features Vitro Glass’s premier solar control, triple-silver, low-e coating on a specially engineered low-iron glass substrate. Together, they provide an exceptional blend of environmental performance and clarity. In addition to preventing bird-glass collisions, this innovative combination of Vitro Glass and Walker Glass technologies will enable The Garden Room at the National Aviary to achieve its ambitious environmental goals.
AviProtek E Pattern 213 glass was designed to satisfy the American Bird Conservancy’s “2 by 4” rule. This guideline states that, to be bird-friendly, any pattern on a glass surface must uniformly cover the entire window and consist of lines, dots or other geometric figures separated by no more than two inches if oriented in horizontal rows, or by four inches if oriented in vertical columns.
For more information about the full range of sustainable architectural glass products available from Vitro Glass, please visit www.vitroglazings.com or call 1-855-VTRO-GLS (887-6457).
About the National Aviary
The National Aviary is America’s only independent indoor nonprofit zoo dedicated to birds. Located in Allegheny Commons Park on Pittsburgh’s historic North Side, the National Aviary’s diverse collection comprises more than 500 birds representing more than 150 species from around the world, many of them threatened or endangered in the wild. The National Aviary’s large walk-through habitats create an experience unlike any other – an intimate, up-close interaction between visitors and free-flying birds, including opportunities to hand-feed and meet many species rarely found in zoos anywhere else in the world.
About Vitro Architectural Glass
Vitro Architectural Glass, part of Vitro, S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV:VITROA), the largest company of its kind in the Americas, manufactures a range of industry-leading, energy-efficient products such as Solarban®, Sungate® and Starphire Ultra-Clear® glasses at U.S. plants in Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Fresno, California; Salem, Oregon; and Wichita Falls, Texas. Committed to sustainable manufacturing processes and products, the company also operates one of the world’s largest glass research and development facilities in Pittsburgh and four residential glass fabrication plants in Canada. Upholding the values of “Together, We See Further” across the architectural, automotive and containers markets, Vitro strives to realize the power of partnership to ensure that projects meet or exceed ever-evolving sustainability expectations as well as glass requirements. For more information, please visit www.VitroGlassHub.com.
Solarban, Acuity, Starphire and Starphire Ultra-Clear are registered trademarks owned by Vitro.
AviProtek is a registered trademark of Walker Glass Limited, Inc.
