Award-winning academic building features SOLARBAN 70XL glass by Vitro Glass

Solarban® 70XL solar control low-e glass by Vitro Architectural Glass is featured on the University of Kansas’ Capitol Federal Hall Business School, which received a 2017 Rethinking The Future (RTF) Award in the Institutional category for its transformational design.

Designed by Gensler, a global architecture, design and planning firm, and Gastinger Walker Harden + Bee Triplett Buck, of Kansas City, Missouri, the 167,000-square-foot, four-story building was cited for its open sightlines, natural light, changing views and accessibility to encourage communication between students and faculty members. 

Highlights include flexible rooms, movable furniture and more than 25 collaborative spaces, along with a central atrium that is ringed with open work areas and glass-walled offices and corridors. Faculty offices and student classrooms are located next to one another, not separated by floors, to facilitate interactions between professors and undergraduates.

The structure also includes 125- and 350-seat auditoria, 205 offices and labs, and floor-to-ceiling windows fabricated with Solarban 70XL glass overlooking the outdoors or the atrium. Two glass and concrete wings spread outward from a central atrium volume and weathering steel frames the glazing areas, including protruding window boxes.

With center-of-glass visible light transmittance (VLT) of 64 percent and a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.27 in a standard 1-inch insulating glass unit (IGU), Solarban 70XL glass is one of the industry’s highest performing solar control, low-emissivity (low-e) glasses.

Capitol Federal Hall was one of 512 projects in 15 categories submitted from approximately 30 nations for the annual international awards, which RTF presents to “the best of architecture and design across the globe, where innovation and creativity are intersecting.”

Founded in 2012 in New Delhi, India, the RTF aims to bring out the most creative and innovative projects in the field of architecture and design and create an interactive educational platform of the highest standards.

To learn more about Vitro Architectural Glass, call 1-855-VTRO-GLS (887-6457) or log on towww.vitroglazings.com.