I was in an office park on the east coast the other day and found myself walking through a stunning atrium. Oversized sheets of point-supported glass rising several stories high. I thought to myself, what a brilliant space!
Then, unfortunately, I began to look closer at the glass: dirty, downright nasty in some areas, streaked from winter storms and still too cold to clean it up.
The whole experience confirmed to me that Glass + Mirror Craft recently made the right decision to offer a state-of-the-art coating for glass contained in our architectural systems. You can find this kind of a product on glass installed in baths and showers, but rarely on glass found in atriums, or canopies, or guardrails and the like.
We want to lead in this niche, as part of our overall philosophy of “design assist” – that is, to work with glaziers to take on these types of projects and add value that exceeds expectations. Like delivering architectural systems with brilliant, clean glass that can be easily maintained.
The coating is from Diamon-Fusion, a California-based company. By chemically bonding to the silica in glass, the Diamon-Fusion coating permanently seals the microscopic peaks and valley of the glass surface, preventing dirty snow and rain or stains from pollutants and pollens to penetrate the crevices. In this way it acts to preserve the glass, but perhaps more importantly, it helps retain “the curb appeal” of the architectural system by keeping the glass looking newer, cleaner, longer.
Another plus, Diamon-Fusion can also contribute to LEED points and is approved by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) as a protective coating for a wide range of surfaces, including acid-etched, sandblasted, tinted, curved, tempered, and laminated glass.
We’re excited to bring this product to this segment of the market. We hope our glazier partners will be, too. After all, an atrium can’t be both brilliant and dirty at the same time.
