STRUCTURAL GLASS FACADES - USC School of Architecture

design or technology they are interested in using and begin looking for an appropriate
project. The early adopters are generally leading design firms with major commissions
incorporating high project budgets. They may not be capable of delivering the initial
innovation, but observing the innovation, they have the internal resources to assemble a
team and develop a program that can adopt the technology and adapt it to their project and
program requirements. Most of the currently completed structural glass façades have been
implemented by these early adopters.
The innovators and early adopters combined are a small fraction of the design firms active in
the commercial construction market. There is a potential tier of secondary adopters that
have been following with interest the completion of the various structural glass facades over
the past few years, analogous to the group of people charting the experiences of the early
adopters of Apple’s iPhone; they are watching to see how the technology performs and
waiting to see if the prices drop. However, the potential secondary adopters of structural
glass façade technology face additional hurdles. One can expect the iPhone to be nicely
packaged with Apple’s characteristic user-friendly interface, directions as appropriate, and
after all, the technology is quite familiar to begin with. The context is quite different for those
designers, or other constituents for that matter, interested in working with structural glass
façade technology. Access to the technology is fragmented. There is little information to be
found beyond pretty pictures and rather non technical project descriptions. There are
resources and tools available for glass, cables, castings, and other elements of the
technology, but there are no comprehensive, organized technical resources, design guides,
or tools available to them to facilitate their use of the technology. Their only option is to hire a
specialty consultant, whose fees raise an immediate challenge to implementation, or a
specialty vendor or contractor who often have their own agendas that challenge the
designer’s ability to control the design throughout the design and build process.
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