SOLARBAN 70XL glass performance contributes to AIA top-ten green building project

Solarban® 70XL solar control low-e glass by Vitro Architectural Glass was specified for Chatham University’s Eden Hall Campus, located near Pittsburgh, which was named one of the top ten building projects of 2017 by the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE).

The first academic community in the world built from the ground up for the study of sustainable living, learning and development, Eden Hall Campus was designed to incorporate the latest in environmentally responsible technology, design, innovation and products, including Solarban70XL glass.

With visible light transmittance (VLT) of 64 percent and a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.27 at center-of-glass 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.

Due to its ability to transmit high levels of natural daylight while diminishing solar heat gain, Solarban 70XL glass was selected to be part of high-performance building envelopes designed and specified by Seattle- and San Francisco-based architectural firm Mithun.

Equipped with high-performance mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, passive energy collection and on-site renewable energy generation, buildings on the campus are designed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, and to produce more energy than they consume.

In addition being used on Eden Hall Campus, Solarban 70XL glass has been specified in numerous award-winning LEED®-certified projects, including VIA 57 West in New York; NASA Sustainability Base in Mountain View, California; RBC Centre in Toronto; and Three PNC Tower in Pittsburgh.

Eden Hall Campus is home to the Falk School of Sustainability & Environment at Chatham University, which offers undergraduate and graduate programs in sustainability, food studies and dual-degree MBA programs. Rothschild Doyno Collaborative, a Pittsburgh-based architectural firm, provided local support to Mithun on the project. The glass fabricator was United Plate Glass in Butler, Pennsylvania.