A new version of health care is being delivered at Jacobs Medical Center, a gleaming 509,000-square-foot, 245-bed medical and surgical specialty hospital in the University of California San Diego Health System. There, patients are in control: They can securely review their treatment schedules on tablet computers, adjust the room temperature and lighting, or adjust their “smart” bed to get a better view of the surrounding hills and ocean.
This “patient first” approach was the inspiration for the hospital’s design. With an objective to establish a healing, relaxing environment, architectural firm CannonDesign specified transparent solar control low-emissivity (low-e) Solarban® 70XL glass on Starphire Ultra-Clear® glass by Vitro Glass to provide abundant natural daylight and minimize glare and outside noise.
Although it met performance requirements, the glass specification had to be adjusted to achieve another design objective. That required close collaboration between Vitro Glass and Northwestern Industries, Inc. (NWI), a Vitro Certified™ fabricator.
“The architect wanted the building to have a whitish exterior look,” explained Frank Forgione of NWI. “We worked with Vitro testing various glass samples and mock-ups that could meet this requirement and still maintain the desired performance. Ultimately, we put a customized silk-screened white frit on Starphire Ultra-Clear® glass, which we laminated on Solarban® 70XL glass.”
This configuration was used extensively, including the floor-to-ceiling windows in all patient rooms; the front-glazed, unitized curtain wall system; and spandrel shadow-box glazing. More than 100,000 square-feet of glass was installed.
To handle this high volume and facilitate the timely shipment of glass orders to ENCLOS, the glazing contractor, NWI used the Vitro Concierge Program™, which provides logistics management and customized coordination for large projects. By providing priority access to the glass, the Vitro Concierge Program™ helped to ensure the project stayed on schedule. “We worked closely with ENCLOS to meet their scheduling requirements, and worked through the Concierge Program, which allowed us to stay on top of everything,” said Forgione.
Other amenities were incorporated to ensure convenience and comfort. Patient rooms were designed as private suites furnished with smart beds oriented for panoramic views of La Jolla and equipped with tablet computers that patients can use to see their treatment schedules and medical records and control motorized solarshading, lighting and temperature.
Since starting operation in November 2016, Jacobs Medical Center has passed its check-ups with flying colors. Groundbreaking research and education, advanced surgical technologies and a patient-first ethos in an architecturally significant setting have ushered in a new era of health care.
Formulated with the industry’s most advanced triple-silver coating, Solarban® 70XL glass has visible light transmittance (VLT) of 64 percent with a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.27 and a light-to-solar gain (LSG) ratio of 1.85. This high performance, combined with the silk-screened white frit on Starphire Ultra-Clear® glass, helped achieve design objectives and enabled the facility to earn LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification at the Silver level.
To learn more about Solarban® 70XL glass or Starphire Ultra-Clear® glass by Vitro Architectural Glass, visit www.vitroglazings.com.
Related Stories
Sponsored | MFPRO+ Course | Oct 30, 2023
For the Multifamily Sector, Product Innovations Boost Design and Construction Success
This course covers emerging trends in exterior design and products/systems selection in the low- and mid-rise market-rate and luxury multifamily rental market. Topics include facade design, cladding material trends, fenestration trends/innovations, indoor/outdoor connection, and rooftop spaces.
Products and Materials | Aug 31, 2023
Top building products for August 2023
BD+C Editors break down 15 of the top building products this month, from frameless windscreens to smart fixture mount sensors.
Glass and Glazing | Aug 25, 2023
Vitro Architectural Glass Lowers Embodied Carbon Further, Releases NEW Environmental Product Declarations
Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG Glass) has published updated versions of its Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for both flat and processed glass. These updates reaffirm that Vitro’s glass products contain less embodied carbon than the industry standard for architectural glass products and indicate a lower embodied carbon value than previously reported in 2017 editions of these EPDs.
Fire-Rated Products | Aug 14, 2023
Free download: Fire-rated glazing 101 technical guide from the National Glass Association
The National Glass Association (NGA) is pleased to announce the publication of a new technical resource, Fire-Rated Glazing 101. This five-page document addresses how to incorporate fire-rated glazing systems in a manner that not only provides protection to building occupants from fire, but also considers other design goals, such as daylight, privacy and security.
75 Top Building Products | Aug 7, 2023
Enter today! BD+C's 75 Top Building Products for 2023
BD+C editors are now accepting submissions for the annual 75 Top Building Products awards. The winners will be featured in the November/December 2023 issue of Building Design+Construction.
Building Materials | Jun 14, 2023
Construction input prices fall 0.6% in May 2023
Construction input prices fell 0.6% in May compared to the previous month, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index data released today. Nonresidential construction input prices declined 0.5% for the month.
Cladding and Facade Systems | Jun 5, 2023
27 important questions about façade leakage
Walter P Moore’s Darek Brandt discusses the key questions building owners and property managers should be asking to determine the health of their building's façade.
Codes | Mar 2, 2023
Biden Administration’s proposed building materials rules increase domestic requirements
The Biden Administration’s proposal on building materials rules used on federal construction and federally funded state and local buildings would significantly boost the made-in-America mandate. In the past, products could qualify as domestically made if at least 55% of the value of their components were from the U.S.
AEC Innovators | Feb 28, 2023
Meet the 'urban miner' who is rethinking how we deconstruct and reuse buildings
New Horizon Urban Mining, a demolition firm in the Netherlands, has hitched its business model to construction materials recycling. It's plan: deconstruct buildings and infrastructure and sell the building products for reuse in new construction. New Horizon and its Founder Michel Baars have been named 2023 AEC Innovators by Building Design+Construction editors.
Glass and Glazing | Jan 6, 2023
Vitro Architectural Glass announces new names for three Solarban Glass Products
Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG Glass) announced that it will be renaming three of its signature Solarban® solar control, low-emissivity (low-e) glass products at the beginning of 2023. While the products will have new names, the performance and visual characteristics of all three glasses will remain the same.