The building has experienced savings of approximately $4.4 million per year, which will achieve the project’s return on investment in less than the five years anticipated.


New 1 3/8-inch insulating glass units installed in the 102nd-floor observatory are composed of products from three manufacturers. The interior features low-iron glass with a coating that protects the glass from scratches, smudges and haze. A clear aluminum solar film and argon/krypton gas are suspended in the middle of the panes. On the exterior, glass that reduces the transmission of electromagnetic radiation was specified.


View a video showing the Empire State Building’s 6,514 existing windows being retrofi tted in a


soundproof window refurbishment shop located onsite. retrofi tTV.com


Retrofit Materials >>


cLeAR ALUmInUm SoLAR FILm FoR eXIStInG WInDoWS RetRoFIt AnD oBSeRVAtoRY RepLAcement// Serious Materials, www.seriouswindows.com


oBSeRVAtoRY InteRIoR pAne// UltraWhite low-iron glass with DiamondGuard coating, Guardian Indus- tries Corp., www.guardian.com


oBSeRVAtoRY eXteRIoR pAne// Datastop, Pilkington, www.pilkington.com


50 RETROFIT // May-June 2013


Another was very high ther- mal values. Lastly, the space needed a glass package that would repel any radio waves from the antenna equipment on the top of the building.” In addition, public safety and glass clarity were of utmost importance. Kilroy Architectural Windows collaborated with Johnson Controls and the rest of the dream team to create a unique glass unit com- posed of three different manufacturers’ products that each met individual design requirements. On the interior face,


Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Guardian Industries Corp.’s UltraWhite low-iron glass with DiamondGuard coat- ing, which protects glass from scratches, smudges and haze, was specified. The exterior pane is Datastop, which reduces the trans- mission of electromagnetic radiation and is manufac- tured by Toledo, Ohio-based Pilkington. Suspended between the two panes of glass is Serious Materi- als’ clear aluminum solar film—the same film in- stalled in the 6,514 windows throughout the building. “Combining these dif-


ferent products that the owners needed and also maintaining an extremely high level of clarity in the glass was a challenge,” Ken- nedy adds. “Every time you add a different layer you’re going to affect the clarity of the glass. The challenge was


meeting the design needs while maintaining a very high-level aesthetic.” The Guardian and


Pilkington products were shipped to Serious Materi- als’ factory. There, workers placed the suspended film in the air space between the two lites of laminated glass, ultimately fabricating a 1 3/8-inch insulating glass unit. The air space then was filled with a mixture of argon and krypton. Once the insulated glass


units were shipped to the Empire State Building, they were transported to the 102nd floor and installed at times that wouldn’t interfere with typical build- ing operations, including observatory visitors’ hours. “We worked at night—2 to 7 a.m.,” Kennedy remembers. The 1/2-inch existing


glass was removed from the frame, and then Ken-


nedy’s crew installed the 1 3/8 insulated glass unit into the existing frame. “We had to come up with a custom glazing bead to reuse the existing frames,” Kennedy recalls. Because the win- dows are in-swing awning vents, the installers were easily able to apply a cap bead on the outside to seal the glass on the exterior. The entire job on the 102nd floor took the team four days to complete. “This was truly a col-


laborative effort,” Kennedy says. “We had a lot of help from the manufacturers who are, in many regards,


competitors. The collabora- tion between the design team and manufactur- ers, who worked together toward a common goal that met the many needs of the owner, was great to see.”


World-class


Effi ciency Out of the roughly $500 million budget for capital improvements at the Em- pire State Building, the total cost of the energy-efficiency work was about $13 million, Malkin says. He adds the building has experienced savings of approximately $4.4 million per year, which will achieve the project’s return on investment in less than the five years antici- pated. “When you’re doing work that needs to be done anyway, that’s when you should be looking at energy efficiency. The costs then are not very great while the returns are huge,” he says. However, what’s most


rewarding to Malkin is the project has repositioned the Empire State Build- ing as a modern office building. He explains: “The whole goal here is not to look at the Empire State Building as some sort of archaeological dig. It’s vibrant and attracting the best-quality tenants; the energy efficiency is a major lure. Hopefully, frankly, that breeds envy, and envy will breed duplication, and duplication will yield a better overall result for the environment.”


PHOTO: GUARDIAN INDUSTRIES CORP.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84