Some very good technical information hitting the streets
over the last few weeks and with holidays and vacations, you may not have seen
them all so I figured I would do a quick roundup for you. Surely worthwhile information to be had…
Trex Commercial Products had a fantastic release- “Three Glazing Myths Debunked” which was very impressive. The team there did a nice job addressing some
big issues on the railing side and they did it in a sharp and concise way. Well done!
Meanwhile the National Glass Association (NGA) released
THREE new Glazing Informational Bulletins (GIBS) that are all complimentary! These GIB’s were developed by your peers in
the industry (an incredible list of talent that is for sure) and was led by my
reigning Industry MVP Nathalie Thibault of Prelco Inc. The subjects were systematic updates to the
“Recommended Applications for Heat-Treated Glass” and “Approximate Weight of
Interlayer Used in Laminated Architectural Flat Glass” along with a new release
“Thermal Stress in Heat Treated Spandrel Glass.” The last one has gained notoriety thanks to
some incidents in the field, so having a GIB at the ready is only making us
better as an industry. Kudos to everyone
involved and THANK YOU for volunteering your time and knowledge. To get these docs along with tons of other
technical pieces, click this LINK and you’ll be directed to NGA’s technical
website.
NGA also announced the launch of its new Glass & Glazing
Academy and it’s an online portal that will be work in combo with the fine
folks from Architectural Record. This is
a huge addition for our industry and credit to Andrew Haring and his team at
NGA for spearheading it. More info can
be found HERE
Obviously things are happening all the time in our world and
keeping up with them can be a challenge.
So do yourself a favor and make plans now to get to events like Fall Conference in Toledo (Register before 6/15 and save $150!) or GlassBuild America in Atlanta. Don’t get left behind!
Elsewhere…
-- The annual AIA show was last week in Vegas and I was not
there- I’m looking forward to hearing feedback on it and anything relevant I’ll
share here next week…
So now it’s time for the kick off my summer interview
season. I am very excited about the
folks I have lined up and I’m still chasing a few. So if you get an e-mail from me asking,
please give it a consideration!
The format is this- I ask 3 questions to folks I have chosen
that I think have some interesting backgrounds and approaches. Also I try to choose people that may not get
the regular publicity that others get.
To kick things off I interviewed Joanne Funyak of Vitro
Architectural Glass. I have been a fan
of Joanne’s for a long time but I had absolutely no idea of her incredible
background and I am glad she escaped the chemical side to be in the glass
world- our industry is better for it!
Max:
In reading your LinkedIn page I was fascinated by some of the positions
you held at PPG (and then Vitro) before you ended up on the glass side of
things. You spent a ton of time in
chemicals and coatings before you landed in the glass world. What have been the biggest differences in
working with glass and glazing vs. your previous roles?
Joanne: They are quite similar, especially the metal
coatings and glass side for building products.
The value / supply chain starts with the project architect looking at
performance and aesthetics. Then it goes
down the chain to general contractors to fabricators / metal coaters to the
material supplier. Due to those
similarities, my experience in metal coatings and glass made my role as PPG’s
Construction Market Team Manager a little easier.
When it comes to the products… it’s the same; performance and
aesthetics. When I made the transition
from coatings to glass though I thought to myself “How difficult can glass
be?” It’s just melted sand. In coatings we had thousands of formulas for
different applications. We made coatings
for what we called cradle to grave. We
made coatings for baby swings to caskets and everything in between (golf balls,
washers & dryers, Harley Davidson, etc).
So glass had to be so simple, right?
Boy was I surprised!
What are the some of
the biggest glass and glazing trends going right now in your opinion?
Right now, jumbo (over-sized) glass is a major trend. The addition of our jumbo Coater in Wichita
Falls which can produce our Solarban Low-e Coated Glass has positioned Vitro
well to serve this market. One of the main
purposes of this jumbo coater is to provide more efficient yields to our Vitro
Certified Network Members. Architects
are also designing with larger vision glass units which this will service. However caution must be taken when designing
on things such as wind load, thermal stress and cost to handle the weight and
size of such large units.
Other areas that are trending include decorative (printing
on) glass and bird avoidance to name a few.
If you could have
dinner with 3 other people, whether they are currently dead or alive, who would
they be and why?
Well of course my dad, He passed away 5 years ago and I miss
him dearly.
Someone from the pioneer days. I often wonder as I watch old movies of how
they survived… how they determined which terrain to travel, land to homestead,
etc. How did they survive the heat
during those hot, dry summer months, and cold during those freezing winter months? I think to myself if I had to go back to
those days, could I do it?
And I think Mario Lemieux would be one. I have been a Penguin season ticket holder
for 30 years. I met him once in an
airport but only to say thank you. I
respect what he has done as a player, owner and community leader.
LINKS of the WEEK
Honestly I only read the headline here. Still laughing.
Is this real life? A
real story? My goodness.
Love this- High School delivers 100% graduation rate. Even my kids HS, which is idiotically easy,
didn’t graduate everyone.
VIDEO of the WEEK
You know me- I love the movies and this week a trailer was
released for one coming this November that looks fabulous. Based on a true story “Ford vs. Ferrari” is
about the two famous carmakers battling for the title of fastest car and
includes all the politics and insider stuff going on at the time… good trailer
too! (Anytime you can use “Gimme Shelter” by the Stones, is a winning play in
my book)
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