A Calculated Choice

We recently issued a news release announcing a major expansion project at Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville, Minn.You’ll find cleanliness cited as one of the benefits SageGlass® delivered to the project designers. Because it eliminates the need for blinds, shades and louvers, SageGlass greatly reduces dust build up (and all the ongoing maintenance costs required to deal with it); a really important consideration for a healthcare facility.

The project architects at BWBR selected SageGlass for the Fairview Ridges Hospital project for other reasons too – namely efficiency and occupant comfort – issues about which any building designer or owner cares, no matter what the building’s usage.

The defining feature of this most recent healthcare project included a two-story, all-glass atrium with south, west and east-facing walls to create a new sunlit lobby and gathering space at the hospital. With that much glass exposed to that much sunlight, BWBR knew heat gain and glare would be an issue. And this is where the story of the Fairview Ridges expansion project looks like many other projects in the SageGlass portfolio.

Faced with a great design and a vexing solar control issue, BWBR took the logical next step; running heat gain and cost analysis calculations combining various glazing, sun shades, blinds, louvers and other types of solar controls.

BWBR found that effective solar control using traditional approaches would not only be expensive, but would compromise the design, introduce ongoing maintenance costs and degrade benefits the glass structure was designed to deliver, including daylighting and a clear line of sight to the outside for occupants.

Running the numbers, BWBR found SageGlass eliminated the added up-front costs, design compromises, ongoing maintenance costs and dust build up issues of traditional approaches, all while maximizing day light use and preserving an uninterrupted connection to the outside.