US Glass - April 2008 - USGlass Magazine

One Week, All Glass
continued from page 45
BEC Crowds Come to Las Vegas
While many Glass Association
of North America (GANA)
members arrived at the Rio in
Las Vegas for the start of Glass Week
on February 13, by February 17 the
desert city was flooded with glazing
contractors. More than 700 attendees
arrived for the Building Envelope Contractors
(BEC) conference, and crowds
did not dwindle as the first presentations
were given the next morning.
Max Perilstein of Arch Aluminum &
Glass, chairperson of GANA’s BEC Division,
welcomed the audience before
turning the stage over to keynote
speaker Shep Hyken. Hyken noted
that, “People want to do business with
people they know, they like and they
trust.” Those words seemed to be exemplified
by the networking opportunities
for which the BEC conference is
known.
Hyken’s advice gave way to more
technical sessions later in the morning.
Joseph Solinski, president of Stone
& Glazing Consulting, presented the
audience with a thought-provoking
case study during his presentation,
“Structural Glazing Survey and Repair.”
He walked the audience
through the examination of a building
with a 500,000-square-foot unitized
curtainwall system—and a history of
loose glass and leaks. A survey of the
building revealed structural sealant
concerns.
Later, Bruce Werner of Curtain Wall
Design and Consulting Inc. and Peter
Poirier of Tremco Inc. formed a panel
about four-sided structural silicone glazing.
As Werner pointed out, the talk in
Las Vegas was apropos as the City Center
project on the Strip is the largest
structural silicone glazed (SSG) construction
project in the world. Since the
first SSG building was constructed in
1971, it has become “a mature technology,”
Werner said.
Ted Derby of Pohl Inc. of America
touched on a newer technology: rainscreens.
Pohl made a case for the use
of vented walls, or walls that allow air to
move around but still manage water.
One question that comes up is whether
energy efficiency can be maintained
with vented walls. According to Pohl,
continuity in installation is the key to improved
energy efficiency.
He also noted that rainscreens can be
incorporated into unitized curtainwall
systems. “A lot of pre-engineering is
done with these systems,” he says,
adding that this can help quality control.
Richard Green, P.E., and Stanley Yee
of The Façade Group also discussed
new technology. The duo went through
the design, development and implementation
of a 300,000-square-foot
point-supported glass wall at the new
Bangkok International Airport. One of
the ten largest airports in the world, its
curtainwall system incorporates a number
of new technologies, including
point-fixed, heat-strengthened laminated
glass and intricate stainless
steel components.
Patrick Muessig of Azon USA focused
on the topic of energy modeling.
Muessig introduced his audience
to some of the tools available for this
topic, as well as an overview of some
of the federal legislation pointing toward
requirements for energy-efficient
buildings, including the recently
passed Energy Independence and Security
Act of 2007 (see March 2008
USGlass, page 46).
He suggested COMFEN—a software
tool from the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory for calculating heating
and cooling energy use of
fenestration products in commercial
buildings—is the next generation of energy
modeling.
continued on page 48
The seminars, ranging from technical to humorous, stayed packed by nearly 800 attendees throughout the BEC Conference.
46 USGlass, Metal & Glazing | April 2008 www.usglassmag.com