Project Case Studies

Digital Learning Center

CHALLENGE

LCG Facades was contacted by the contractor on this project because they had some specific energy saving challenges that had been presented to them from the architect.

First, there was a large expanse of glass on the west facing wall that even with Low-E coated high performance glass was going to allow a great deal of heat gain into the building. Beefing up the HVAC system was not economically practical. There was discussion of introducing an interior blind, but this was also not practical because the windows spanned an open area two floors high which would have caused an enormous amount of light, and therefore heat, to be brought into the building during the afternoon hours.

Second, the building also had a great deal of custom fabricated panels on the exterior that required a fair amount of interface between the panel and other finishes. The design had to address seismic movement of the building, as well as keep the building water tight where the exterior façade panels met the window walls. This meant the layout and quality control had to be of a very high level in order for the finished product to look architecturally flat and pleasing to the eye with all of the complex geometric formed aluminum panels that were required.