Chihuly Garden and Glass

February 2014
Artwork © Copyright, Chihuly Studio, 2012, all rights reserved. Photo by Ben Benschneider
CHIHULY
GLASSHOUSE
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
The Glass
Guardian SunGuard
SuperNeutral 62
Architect
Owen Richards
Architects,
Seattle, Washington
Guardian Select
Fabricators
Hartung Glass Industries,
Seattle, Washington
Northwestern Industries,
Seattle, Washington
Glazier
Novum Structures,
Union City, California
B U I L D
Glass artist and Seattle native Dale Chihuly joined
with the Seattle Center to create a glass installation located at the base of the Space Needle in
Seattle, Wash. It includes the existing arcade building, which is now the exhibition hall, a sculpture
garden and a glass house as the centerpiece of
the project. Chihuly populated the space with a
combination of artworks from earlier in his career
and new sculptures.
The centerpiece of Chihuly Garden and Glass is
the Glasshouse, the result of Chihuly’s lifelong
appreciation for conservatories. The design draws
inspiration from Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and the
Crystal Palace in London. The installation in the
Glasshouse is an expansive, 100-foot long sculpture. Made of many individual elements, it is one
of Chihuly’s largest suspended sculptures.
W I T H
The Glasshouse mimics a greenhouse, with a
minimum of steel framing and 28,000 sf of glass,
coated with Guardian SunGuard SuperNeutral
62. Key glass decision points included meeting the
tough City of Seattle energy requirements, having
NFRC-approved data and the 8 mm thickness of
the low-E glass was required to meet wind and
structural requirements.
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. SN62 is the only product
that met all of these requirements.
Also used on the renovated exhibition hall glass,
SN 62 has a visible light transmission of 62 percent
and a solar at gain coefficient of 0.31.
The project has received LEED Silver certification.
L I G H T
www.sunguardglass.com Copyright @2014 Guardian Industries Corp. All rights reserved.