There’s lots of articles out there on projects featuring bird friendly glazing. However, a look behind the scenes on how a project ends up using glass that is paramount in saving millions of bird lives is not one that you see very often.
Walker Glass Architectural Program Director, Steve Morren has been in the glass and glazing business for more than 38 years. He’s seen many building code and glass changes, from the push into insulating glass to the additions of Low Emissivity (Low E) coatings – and now glass solutions that can be friendly to the bird world.
Morren spends a majority of his time educating architects and designers on the latest and Walker products that can help them do their jobs more effectively ensuring that the best products are being installed into the structures that they design.
One such stop along Steve’s route was the highly reputed firm Stantec. With offices all over the world and projects of all sizes and styles, Stantec is on the cutting edge of the building product world. Morren presented Walker’s bird friendly glazing product AviProtek® in anticipation of a project to be design in Toronto called ErinoakKids Center (Giampaolo Foundation Campus).
In Toronto, building regulations offer bird friendly guidelines so Steve knew the product would be needed. He was intent on informing Stantec as to the best glass solution to meet their design needs, including meeting bird friendly guidelines and protecting the environment.
“I showed them the AviProtek® E and they liked it for several reasons -including the bird protective aspect and the energy performance piece. It featured Vitro’s Solarban® 70XL on it meaning they could control the heat gain as dictated by their energy models,” Morren said.
AviProtek® E is a fascinating product combining acid-etch visual markers on the number 1 surface (where it is most effective) with the Solarban® high performance low-e coatings on position 2. The placement of the markings has no significant impact on visible light transmission and solar performance. In addition, the resistance properties of the acid-etched surface are equivalent or superior to unetched glass.
During that presentation at Stantec, Morren knew he had to bring his audience the details and insights they have come to expect from their vendors. He was quite pleased with the outcome.
“Being able to give them what they needed with regards to Toronto bird friendly guidelines and the energy efficiency was important, but showing it on a sample with the necessary markings without some of the heavily visible decals that past bird designs had offered really hit home. The best part was presenting a product and seeing their eyes light up when all they wanted could be achieved.”
Six months after Morren’s presentation the specification noting AviProtek® was out and local fabricator Trulite and glazier Aerloc ended up with the project. Soon after the materials were ordered from Walker and the job processed without any issue or delay.
More and more municipalities are joining Toronto in supporting bird safety.
“While the growth in Toronto continues… the city of Vaughn (next door to Toronto) is enacting regulations next year. While many are educated about bird friendly codes it’s now more about education of the various solutions. There’s more to this than random dots on the #2 surface of an IGU.”Morren further stated.
Bird friendly glazing will continue to grow and professional like Morren and companies like Walker Glass will continue to be out there educating and communicating to all.
