Deloitte Tower Uses Energy Efficient Glazing in Quest for LEED Platinum Certification TGI-Spacers Played a Key Role in Curtain Wall Vision Glass and Spandrel Panels TECHNOFORMGLASSINSULATION TGI-Spacers Played a Key Role in Curtain Wall Vision Glass and Spandrel Panels. Project: Deloitte Tower Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada Owner/Developer: Cadillac Fairview Corporation, Limited Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) with Bregman & Hamann (B+H) Architects Size: 560,000 square feet (52,100 square meters), 28 stories Budget: $200 million The Setting – Downtown Montreal IGU Fabricator: Multiver Ltée, established in 1969 The Setting – Downtown Montreal The spirit of the city is seen as alive at the gold or platinum level. This and strong in this setting, despite its progressive approach puts the The Cadillac Fairview Corporation cold climate. development and its tenants at Limited, along with its major tenant the forefront of sustainable office Deloitte, has helped create the first, design in Canada. The challenge new, privately-owned and financed The Challenge – Aggressive includes allowing plenty of natural commercial office tower in more Green Building Performance daylight to reduce electric light than 20 years to be built in the city usage while still efficiently keeping of Montreal, Quebec. This marks Cadillac Fairview has initiated a heat gain and loss under control. the first step in a $2 billion multi- nationwide effort known as Green The intent is to realize energy cost year plan to develop a prime sector at Work. This program tracks savings of 35-40% and reduced of downtown Montreal creating a energy consumption, water usage greenhouse gas emissions from vibrant new neighborhood known and waste diversion in develop- lower power consumption. The as Quad Windsor. The tower is ments that the company manages Canadian Green Building Council located next to the heritage-desig- across Canada with the objective of (CaGBC) oversees the Leader- nated Windsor Station entertain- progressive improvement each and ship in Energy and Environmental ment venue and connects directly every year. For the Deloitte Tower, Design (LEED) program in Canada. to the Bell Centre, home of the the decision was made to target a Other goals of the certification in- Montreal Canadiens professional LEED® Platinum CS certification for clude sustainable site work, water hockey team. This 560,000-square- the Core and Shell of the building. conservation, indoor environmen- foot project provides premium Tenants, including Deloitte, are tal quality, and sustainable use of office space and approximately 230 subsequently requested to pursue materials and resources. parking spots in a vibrant and very LEED® CI for Commercial Interiors visible part of downtown Montreal. organizations have confirmed that selecting an inferior glass spacer results in the edges, as well as the center of the glass, performing poorly in terms of heat transfer. If the seal along the edge of the spacer does not hold up, then air and water vapor can seep into the glass space otherwise filled with an inert gas. When that happens, the glass appears streaked or stained on the inside and performs even worse. Further, in cold climates like The Design Solution – Abundant ing glass units (IGUs) with a low Montreal, condensation can form Daylight and Views emissivity (low- E) grey colored on the inside of the glass along the coating on the inside surfaces. cold edges causing other problems Early in the planning phase, the The glass supplier and fabricator for the building components nearby. architectural teams collaborated of the IGUs was Multiver Ltée of Together, the architects and Mul- with glass and curtain wall fabri- Quebec. Throughout the planning tiver researched and chose glass cators to ensure the best possible and design process, they assisted spacers manufactured by Techno- selection of suitable products to the architects with performance form Glass Insulation (TGI) since optimize both the energy efficiency calculations, color selection, and they met their design criteria for and the visual appeal of the build- other support. They recognized that both excellent energy efficiency ing. They ultimately settled on a the total performance of the glazing and the ability to meet unique aes- curtain wall design using lightly would be influenced not only by thetic requirements. Specifically, tinted grey vision glass to allow the glass itself but by the individual they selected a 17/32” (13.44mm) abundant daylight to enter virtually products that held the dual panes TGI®-Spacer in a light grey tone to the full width and over 80% of the together, commonly referred to as match the glass color beautifully. height of the perimeter walls on glass spacers. Numerous inde- all of the office floors, which also pendent tests and certification affords spectacular vistas of the city in every direction. Grey tinted windows are an upcoming trend in architecture, according to the Efficient Windows Collaborative. Grey tinted windows offer a more reflective look from the outside of the building, while providing occu- pants of the building with a greater sense of transparency in the glass than darker tinted windows. Based on these characteristics, Guardian Industries glass, color AG50 crystal grey, was specified by the archi- tects for the glazing. Optimizing Energy Performance with Insulating Glass In order to control heat gain and loss, the glazing in the project is made up of dual pane insulat- Putting It All Together – system is the creation of greater The Curtain Wall System transparency than traditional sys- Multiver V.P. of Operations, tems. There are less visual inter- Luc Cormier states “Our pre- Epsylon Concepts, Ltd. of Quebec, ruptions due to the lack of metal on Canada designed, engineered, build simulations clearly the exterior, creating a seamless, manufactured, and installed the continuous glass look. This system ® indicated that the TGI - curtain wall system. Epsylon is creates a completely clean, flush Spacer offered superior U- known as a leader in specialized exterior appearance with superior factor, vapor barrier, site-line high energy efficiency curtain energy performance. It can also temperature and walls making them ideal to meet be much more technically complex the demands of the Deloitte Tower than a traditional system so the skill condensation resistance - project. They also conduct an eval- and quality control of the Epsylon exactly the rifght combination uation of all their products in regard team was heavily relied upon. of quality, value and to LEED certification for materials appearance for the tower and vetted all products for compli- The structural silicone glazed ance with the LBC “Red List” of 14 system selected was Epsylon project. We asimply could not potentially toxic substances. Platinum Series 60.075 – 2S which achieve this any other way.” is the highest performing curtain Because of the size and expanse of wall offered by Epsylon Concepts, the curtain wall system, a pre-fabri- Ltd. It is a pre-fabricated, unitized cated, unitized system was quickly system, with structural silicone on • TGI®-Spacer is a unique hybrid determined to be the best choice. 2 sides that allows multiple glazing spacer system incorporating a Generally, these systems are used types and materials to be combined high-performance polymer and on mid-rise to high-rise structures into one ‘unit’ in a quality controlled low conductivity stainless steel that are 20,000 square feet and up shop environment. Precision is to provide minimal heat trans- where there is high repetition, tight needed in sealing the units togeth- fer, while maximizing protection job site access, and high instal- er since there is no outside metal against gas leakage and moisture lation labor costs. These systems frame to cover any irregularities penetration. hold up over time better than others or imperfections. That goes for the because each curtain wall panel is glass spacers used too, since in • TGI®-Spacer’s straight sightline, installed to be able to expand and some cases they can be left partly light grey color and smooth matte contract independently from the finish complemented the desired supporting structure and retain its overall appearance of the glazing ability to be completely weather and ultimately the whole building. tight. • To maintain a congruent aesthetic The design team next considered appearance throughout all glass traditional curtain wall systems units, Multiver also used the ® compared to structural silicone TGI -Spacer in the spandrel glass systems. Traditional curtain wall panels they provided. Opaque systems use continuously gasketed spandrel glass is used in areas aluminum pressure plates or caps that do not require vision glass, that can conduct large amounts of such as the horizontal sections heat in or out of the façade result- along the floor lines where con- ing in “thermal bridging”. Struc- cealing the structure and other turally glazed curtain wall systems building components are required. consist of glass that is bonded or anchored back to a frame with Multiver fabricated the IGUs for the engineered silicone sealant that Deloitte Tower in a variety of sizes can reduce or eliminate the thermal and shapes to meet the building bridging along the joints between design, the largest unit being 96” x adjacent IGUs. The aesthetic ben- 140” (2.4384m x 3.556m). efit of a structural silicone glazed exposed and create an unintended The Result – High Design and About Technoform Glass Insulation visual appearance. The TGI®-Spac- High Performance North America (TGI) er used in this project extends the colored polypropylene through an The Deloitte Tower is a stunning For more than 45 years, Techno- extended sidewall ensuring mini- example of design and functional- form Glass Insulation has been mal opportunity for stainless steel ity coming together beautifully by helping customers worldwide make peek through and overcoming this paying attention to the details of the the strongest high-performance common quality control issue on glazing system. The collaborative window, curtain wall and IG prod- structural silicone glazed units.