Guardian SunGuard is educating architects on high performance glass and advanced glazing products with the launch of its newest AIA/CES course , Windows on
Sustainability: Advanced Glazings Help Buildings Achieve Net-Zero Envelopes.
Windows on Sustainability discusses the importance of energy-efficient construction, explores a range of existing and emerging technologies designed to enhance the performance of glazing systems, investigates the economics of advanced glazing solutions, and delivers an overview of the road to net-zero energy buildings. The objectives of the presentation are to:
● Understand the importance of achieving energy efficiency in building design.
● Be aware of codes and standards associated with sustainable and energy-efficient construction.
● Be familiar with the performance characteristics of today’s high performance low-E glazings.
● Understand the basis of electrochromic and building integrated photovoltaics and how they can help
buildings achieve net-zero energy consumption.
This course provides a great opportunity for architecture firms to arm themselves with current net zero information, helping them not only participate but lead the conversation about the latest in building envelopes.
Windows on Sustainability is cosponsored by Guardian’s advanced glazing partners, including View, a leader in electrochromic technology, and BISEM, a glazier contractor specializing in the installation of advance glazing products.
The free course is eligible for one AIACEU credit, and is available through Guardian’s partnership with Architectural
Record magazine and publisher McGraw-Hill.
To take the course, visit Windows on Sustainability . Guardian SunGuard also offers a lunch and learn presentation on Advanced Glazings. For more information on this and Guardian’s other AIA CEU programs, contact Lin Richard at 734-654-4380 or lrichard@guardian.com
; or visit SunGuard AIA/CES Registered Training and Education Programs .

Guardian recently introduced an enhanced version of its SunGuard app .
The first of its kind in the industry, the Guardian SunGuard app allows architects, designers, builders, sales executives, glaziers and others to explore SunGuard’s innovative and energy-saving products, while interacting with hundreds of SunGuard projects on the go.
The updated version now features multiple languages, including: French,
German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, and integrates the project databases from Guardian SunGuard websites around the world.
More projects also have been added that can be viewed in either landscape or portrait with impressive high-res images and better mapping functionality. Those using the Guardian
SunGuard app can now search for projects anywhere around the world, no matter where they are.
With the new updates, users can now make sample requests and email projects directly from their smartphone, tablet or other mobile device.
The Guardian SunGuard app can be found in Apple’s App Store for the iPhone or iPad, and
Google’s Android Market for Android phones, by searching for Guardian SunGuard .
Chihuly Garden and Glass , Seattle’s latest architectural wonder, is covered with Guardian glass. Famed glass artist and Seattle native
Dale Chihuly joined with the Seattle Center to create the glass installation located at the base of the Space Needle.
Designed by Seattle-based Owen Richards Architects, Chihuly
Garden and Glass covers 1.5 acres and includes the pro ject’s centerpiece, the Glasshouse, a 4,500-square-foot structure with 43foot ceilings. The Glasshouse features a combination of Chihuly's art works from earlier in his career and new sculptures. The
Glasshouse mimics a greenhouse, with a minimum of steel framing and 28,000 square feet of Guardian SunGuard SuperNeutral (SN)
62 on clear .
The glass provided by Guardian had to meet Seattle's tough energy requirements, have
NFRC-approved data and the 8 mm thickness of the low-E glass was required to meet wind and other structural requirements. The glass also had to withstand Seattle’s temperature and solar variations. The structural framing had to support five freestanding Chihuly sculptures. Each piece is suspended within the five structural bays at a weight of 2,500 pounds a sculpture, point-supported by cable supports from steel arched frames. In fact, one suspended sculpture is 100-feet long, made up of 2,000 pieces of red and yellow glass, part of Chihuly's Persian series.
Chihuly was very particular about the transmitted color and a very good color rendering index, so the art inside showed its true colors through the glass; not filtered, muted or changed by the glass. The design team spent a lot of time looking at the colors of the sculpture through the glass. There was also discussion about what the iconic Space Needle would look like when viewed from the interior of the building. Guardian SunGuard SN62 is the only product that met all of these requirements.
SN 62 has a visible light transmission of 62 percent and a solar heat gain coefficient of .31.

In addition to the Glasshouse, Chihuly Garden and Glass includes the existing arcade building, which is now the exhibition hall and a sculpture garden. The glass was fabricated by Guardian Select Fabricator Hartung Glass Industries , Seattle and Avic Sanxin. Project glaziers were Guardian Glazier Connection member Eastside Glass of Kirkland, Wash. And
Novum Structures of Union City, Calif. The project is expected to receive LEED Silver certification.
This is the largest Chihuly exhibit in the world and another great example of Guardian's significant contribution to the world's architectural landscape.
As the entertainment world’s award season begins, Guardian SunGuard is basking in the afterglow of an exciting awards season of its own SunGuard EC , SunGuard IS
20 and SunGuard SuperNeutral 68 were all honored in 2012 for performance and innovation .
● SunGuard EC recently received a Product Innovation Award for 2012, and
Guardian earned a prestigious Industry Leadership PIA from Architectural Products magazine.
● SunGuard IS 20 is Glass Magazine’s Most Energy Efficient Glass Product of 2012.
The award recognizes Guardian’s commercial coating designed specifically for the interior glass surface.
● Guardian SunGuard SuperNeutral 68 was the glazing of choice for two of Sustainable Architecture & Building magazine’s Canadian Green Building Award honorees. [Read more]
SunGuard EC utilizes View electrochromic technology to transition from clear to tinted on demand. The product enables changes in visible light transmittance and solar heat gain to significantly reduce heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) energy usage in commercial buildings.
SunGuard IS 20 combines high light transmission with significantly enhanced U-factor performance. The product enhances the performance of double-glaze insulating glass units to nearly the level of triple glaze, and can increase the performance of triple-glaze IGUs.
The architects of Canadian Green Building Awardees Karis Place in Vancouver and the Jim
Pattison Centre of Excellence in Kelowna, British Columbia were likely thinking expansive light transmission with solar heat control when they specified SunGuard SuperNeutral 68 high performance glass for these award-winning projects.
Neale Staniszkis Doll Adams Architects pursued LEED gold certification for Karis Place, which offers housing for the area’s homeless. A significant part of that design, SunGuard
SuperNeutral 68 low-E coated glass was fabricated by Guardian Select Fabricator Vitrum
Industries and installed by Starline Architectural Windows.
The Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Technologies and Renewable
Energy Conservation at Okanagan College was created by CEI Architecture. The Centre is designed to the standards of the Living Building Challenge and LEED platinum certification.
The glass was fabricated by Guardian Select Fabricator Garibaldi Glass and installed by
Flynn Canada Ltd.
“We are seeing a greater emphasis on LEED and the ability of commercial projects to not only save, but create energy,” said Chris Dolan, Guardian director of commercial glass marketing . “Guardian is committed to delivering advanced glass solutions that give architects and building owners a competitive edge.”