Glazed Curtain Wall Assemblies – Restoration & Replacement

March 26, 2020

A few weeks ago I watched an ASCE webinar for PDH credits that covered this topic of assessing building materials and their impact on the environment.

It’s an important topic. So much so that the AIA Continuing Education recently published an article called Glazed Curtain Wall Assemblies – Restoration and Replacement Strategies.

Matt Gorny, MAE, P.E. of JEI Structural Engineering says, “Many building owners will struggle to pull the trigger to upgrade their façade on their building because of the cost. Even though these buildings create a major impact on our environment. This is why legislation is forced to step in and make it to happen.”

When considering the environmental impact of a building element, one of the trickiest questions to answer is: what are we really trying to measure? If a life cycle assessment is used to compare glazing components such as curtain wall and storefront systems versus other commonly used building materials such as reinforce concrete or CMU, a more conclusive assessment can be reached by considering the overall full life cycle environmental impact of these materials. Although energy efficiency plays an important role in the impact to the environment, it is only a fraction of all the other categories currently used in the industry that determine the overall environmental impact of a building component (Acidification, Eutrophication, Greenhouse Gasses, Ozone Depletion, Smog Formation and Non-renewable Energy). In all these categories, concrete and steel are the top contributors of pollution due to the amount of pollution generated in their production. Curtain wall frames contribute on average less than 10% in any of the categories listed above when performing a Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment .

With the thermal advances of new curtain wall systems and proper installation and maintenance of the framing components, a curtain wall façade will bring much more positive environmental results than most other building material alternatives, even helping reduce energy use if planned and installed correctly.

Resources

A few useful resources for an environmental impact and sustainability assessment of building materials for new or existing structures are listed below: