Refurbished corporate facade featuring extensive use of structural glass, with a design sympathetic to the 1960s architecture of the existing building.
Eckersley O’Callaghan has provided facade engineering services for the refurbishment and architectural intervention of the UBS Welcome Center. This included a new storefront, structural glass vestibule, structural glass interior walls and mezzanine balustrading.
The storefront to the 1960s building was required to be aesthetically sympathetic to the original storefront framing, resulting in a composite mullion comprising built-up steel tubes and 3/4” anodized aluminium plate with hidden fasteners.
Integrated with the storefront, the vestibule required as much transparency as possible and a structural glass solution was developed. This utilized three-ply laminated glass walls and a glass lid that was also required to support the storefront above.
Structural silicone bonding of joints to avoid hardware, as well as a gradation custom screen printed frit and micro guttering to catch rainwater runoff were also incorporated into the design.
Gensler’s intent for the interior mezzanine balustrade was for the glass to have no visible fasteners. We developed an innovative solution that structurally bonds two rails onto the back of the glass panel to achieve a completely homogeneous surface absent of hardware. This glass also incorporated a gradation custom screen printed frit.
We also provided the final engineering for the contractor which was required as part of their delegated design performance-based contract.
