Behind the Curtain Wall

 Detail renderings of the curtain wall

Previewing curtain wall panels on campus to choose best color

Read more about testing and previewing the wall in this article.


Testing the performance of the curtain wall in extreme conditions.
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Sensitive to the traditional brick buildings that make up the majority of the Barnard campus, architects Weiss/Manfredi riff on brick's color and material qualities to keep the Diana Center in context with its surroundings. The steel-framed building has a glass curtain wall whose surface suggests the spectrum of tone and texture inherent to brick.

The Diana Center's curtain wall is made up of clear and terra cotta-colored glass panels. While the clear glass draws the public green space up diagonally through the building, the colored panels are a gesture of solidarity toward Milbank Hall. R.A. Heintges & Associates, headed by Robert Heintges, is Weiss/Manfredi's partner in executing their vision. See his profile below.

The project team began to look at glass and different ways of using it. They developed a system whereby the colored glass panels would be backed by a shallow cavity closed off by sheetrock, which they are referring to as a shadow box.

The color is acid-etched onto the exterior surface of the glass (frit), giving it a softer matte texture to the surface (rather than being highly reflective).

The pattern on the facade loosely follows Diana Center's open spaces which form a diagonal path through the building and terminate in a rooftop garden. A five-foot module standardizes construction, but they have been able to give the facade a finer overall grain by using more or less frit as needed.

"Glass is typically treated as a neutral skin, and architects want to dematerialize it and make it go away," said Weiss. "We got interested in its presence and decorative richness."

—Marion Weiss, From "Beyond Transparency," The Architect's Newspaper, April 2006

R.A. HEINTGES & ASSOCIATES
ROBERT HEINTGES

Robert Heintges has more than thirty years experience with curtain-wall design and construction; prior to starting the firm in 1989, Mr. Heintges worked for fifteen years with I.M. Pei & Partners and was a Senior Associate there.

Mr. Heintges is personally involved with every project that the firm undertakes.In addition to his unique commitment, R.A.Heintges and Associates professional background in architecture enables the firm to give clients a better, more comprehensive level of service than other consultant firms that offer similar services to the industry. On every project that the firm works on, there is a professionalism and imitate understating of the architectural design process that guarantees the highest-quality results.

Robert Heintges is Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University, where he teaches advanced courses in new building-envelope technologies.