Solarban Glass Products in Urban Union

Vitro’s Solarban® z50 glass and Solarban 72 on Starphire® glass glaze the structure

Two solar control low emissivity (low-e) glass products from Vitro Architectural Glass make up the unitized and site-built curtain wall systems featured in Urban Union, a 268,000-square-foot, 12-story office building that is part of Amazon’s downtown Seattle headquarters expansion project.glass products

Designed by CollinsWoerman, the structure is glazed with Solarban® z50 glass and Solarban 72® on Starphire® glass and features ICD High Performance Coatings’ Telegrey Opaci-Coat-300® in all spandrel areas. A “great room” at ground level is wrapped with a two-story sculptural wood wall and an iconic glass blue cube that warms the entry, and a glass-enclosed conference center with an outdoor terrace at the rooftop offers breathtaking views of Lake Union and the city.

Vitro Certified™ fabricator Hartung Glass Industries, Seattle, fabricated the glass and worked with Vitro and glazing contractor All New Glass, Auburn, Washington, to coordinate deliveries of the two curtain wall systems. “Urban Union is a combination of unitized and site-built curtain wall systems,” said Garth Tait, Hartung sales and technical support. “We had two different delivery challenges with complicated releases on the transitions which needed some extra coordination with Vitro, internally and with All New Glass to marry everything together.”

Located in the bustling South Lake Union neighborhood that is home to many tech industry companies and their employees, Urban Union is fully leased to Amazon and expands the network of open space and pedestrian movement from the Amazon campus west. It can accommodate up to 1,400 employees.

With its soothing, neutral, steel blue-gray appearance, Solarban z50 glass has minimal exterior reflectance, superb solar control, and high levels of visible light transmittance (VLT). It controls glare while providing the daylighting and solar control needed to support sustainable design. In a 1″ insulating glass unit (IGU), it combines VLT of 51% with a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.31.

Solarban 72 glass is a triple-silver-coated solar control low-e glass designed specifically for Vitro low-iron glass substrates, Starphire Ultra-Clear® Glass and Acuity™ Low-Iron Glass. For interior and exterior applications, it provides high VLT, clarity, and solar control performance.

In a standard 1″ IGU, Solarban 72 Starphire glass has a SHGC of 0.28, while Solarban z50 glass has an SHGC of 0.32. The superb solar control performance of these products helped enable the building to earn LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification at the Gold level.