Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Buffalo, New York

Architects
FXFOWLE Architects
New York, New York

Façade
The design team created a contextual building to meld with the existing brick clad buildings throughout the research and clinical campus.  The façade is comprised of a floor-to-floor unitized curtain wall with terra cotta cladding, sunshades, glass shadow boxes and articulated surface planes of the glass with an integral pattern to provide scale and visual interest.  The building features a saw tooth feature on the primary elevation and an iconic cantilevered element with a massing that integrates well with the adjacent building.  

Spontaneous Breakage
A recent rash of spontaneous glass breakage on high rise buildings has made headlines in China with the local media calling the phenomenon “glass rain.”  Recent research by Chinese building authorities indicates that some projects are experiencing spontaneous breakage of tempered glass at a rate nearly four times the industry norm.   Many façade design strategies can be deployed to mitigate the occurrence of spontaneous breakage including enhanced quality control and the selection of glass make ups that avoid the use of monolithic lites tempered glass on high rise buildings. If you want to learn more about our innovative facade design strategies,  please contact Craig Fisher via email at cfisher@axisgrouplimited.com.

     www.facades.com

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