How Do They Do That? Attach the Glass Window Panels to the Steel Frame
A Bit of Trivia: When completed, the new hospital complex (which includes the podium, Children’s Hospital tower, elevator tower and the Adult Hospital tower) will have 4,300 units of glass. Included in the 4,300 units are 838 units of glass that are called punched windows, that are inserted inside of the GFRC panels.
After reading this post, you will have a better idea, when looking up at a beautiful high rise, of how the glass panels are attached to the building.
The exterior or outer covering on a building, the non-structural component of the building, is usually referred to as a curtain wall. The curtain wall is made of light weight material such as glass and aluminum, and is designed to keep out the elements such as wind, rain, and snow. The projects unitized system is designed so carry its own weight while at the same transferring the weight to the structure of the building.
The purpose of this post is to illustrate how the curtain wall is constructed panel-by-panel. The curtain wall in this project is a unitized system made of glass: A single panel could be made of “vision” glass (transparent in nature), spandrel glass (opaque in nature) and is covered by a latex glaze or it could be a hybrid of ‘vision” and spandrel glass.
Perhaps you have been standing at a window in one of the nearby windows, walking by or driving by the construction site and notice a large panel of glass being hoisted high above the ground to a place somewhere on the side of one of the towers. If you have been lucky enough to watch this, perhaps you have wondered how the windows are attached to the side of the building. This post will attempt to answer that question without getting too technical.
Typically, when hanging or setting the unitized glass panel it takes (4) laborers on the building to install a panel–two (2) on the floor on which the glass panel covers, and two (2) on the floor above. In the illustration on this post we will be talking about the glass panel covering the seventh (7th) floor, to two laborers will be on the seventh (7th) floor to set the panel into the channel/track of the previous panel, and two (2) laborers will be on the eighth (8th) floor above to maneuver the panel to the side of the building where it will be anchored to the “monkey bar,” which is attached to the frame of the building.
The Work Area Illustrated in This Post
This post will focus on the section that is outlined in the image above.
The Window Installation Includes: Make Ready, Lift From Yard, Maneuver Into Place, Clip and Seat, Plumb, and Secure
Make Ready:
On the floor above where the window panel goes a welder welds the “Monkey Bar” anchor onto the side of the steel beam. The glass panels are clipped to the anchor bracket and lowered into the track on the floor below.After a section of glass is unwrapped, it is moved to the yard via a 4 pad electric vacuum lifter.The glass panel is placed on its side to all the crew to preps it and attach the slotted hanging clips onto the track.To each side of the frame a bracket clip (right) is attached to the bracket track (left). Each bracket clip is loosely attached to allow some play in the panel frame as it is seated into the track/channel at the bottom of the panel. Before the glass panel is hoisted up to its designated location, the glass is cleaned.
Lift From the Yard:
As one panel is being lowered onto support planks, the crane operator carefully lifts a panel off of the ground.Up it goes.The staging yard as viewed from the seventh (7th) floor.The crane operator and the glass panel as it approaches its designated location.The crew (two laborers on the seventh (7th) floor and two on the eighth (8th) floor await the glass panel. As the two laborers on the seventh (7th) floor adjust a tool, the glass panel swings closer to where it will be installed.
Maneuver:
The glass panel is close enough that the laborers can begin to maneuver the panel into position.On the bottom, the laborers steady the widow panel as the craned operator lifts the panel so that the two laborers on the floor above can clip the panel onto the “monkey bar” steel anchor welded to the beam a floor above.Another side view of the workers steadying the panel as it is carefully lowered into position.
Clip and Seat:
The slotted bracket clips on each side of the frame will fit over the anchor’s “monkey bar.”This image illustrates how the glass panel bracket clips over the “monkey bar.” The top of this seventh (7th) floor panel is the bottom track/channel for the eighth (8th) floor.
The “Monkey Bar” Anchor
(On Which the Top of the Glass Panel Clips to)
A View From Above:
Looking down on the steel anchor and the bracket clips, this image illustrates how the panel connects to the frame of the building. 1L: is the left glass panel; 1R: is the right glass panel; 2: is the ends of the “u” shaped anchor through which the bolt (“monkey bar”) is bolted; 3: the bracket that clips over the “monkey bar: 4; vertical adjustment screw; 5: horizontal adjustment screw; 6L: looking at the panel from the inside, the right side of the panel frame; 6R: looking at the panel from the inside, the left side of the panel frame.
A View From Below:
From below on the seventh (7th) floor: a bottom view of the “monkey bar” anchor and the slotted hook brackets.The glass panels come together and are attached to the building by the slotted brackets, which are hooked over the “monkey bars (No. 1). 2L: is the left panel, and 2R is the right glass panel; 3: the track/channel on which the next panel is anchored to; s tabs that slip into the outside of the panel’s frame to give it additional strength. Once the slotted hook brackets are slipped over the “monkey bar,” the glass panel is slowly and carefully lowered onto the tabs and into the channel of the track.In this image one of the laborers takes a look at the panel as it is seated in the track.The glass panel is seated.
Shim and Plumb:
Once the panel is seated, the challenge is to plumb the panel using shims.After the glass panel is seated and shimmed, the laborers take a reading of the panels position.Just a little push with the feet to move the panel a fraction of an inch.Another reading with a laser and a tape measure shows the installation was perfect.
Secure
After all the adjustments and readings, the panel is bolted to the anchor plate.
A New Track For the Next Row Above
The next day after the rest of the panels were installed on that level a nice level track (1) was laid out for the eighth (8th) floor panels. The anchor plates are visible behind the glass panels.
After graduate school Dennis accepted a position at Loma Linda University. He worked there for 42 years in the areas of administration and financial management, also teaching accounting and management to dietetic students at the School of Public Health. Through the years Dennis has chronicled the growth of the campus, including the construction of the Drayson Center and the Centennial Complex and the razing of Gentry Gym. He is the author of "The Mound City Chronicles: A Pictorial History of Loma Linda University, A Health Sciences Institution 1905 - 2005." dEp 09.30.2016 🔨
Dennis, What is the last floor concrete was pour on, 13 or 14?
Dennis Schall
What is the latest on the power plant expansion?
Dennis schall
Dennis, Periodically it looks like there are parts of the glass panels missing, is that on purpose and how will they be filled it.
Dennis E. Park, MA
You are correct there are a few glass panels that are missing. Most of them were broken or had a problem with fit. Like you. we are anxious to see how the glass company inserts the missing panels.
Dennis, What is the last floor concrete was pour on, 13 or 14?
What is the latest on the power plant expansion?
Dennis, Periodically it looks like there are parts of the glass panels missing, is that on purpose and how will they be filled it.
You are correct there are a few glass panels that are missing. Most of them were broken or had a problem with fit. Like you. we are anxious to see how the glass company inserts the missing panels.
dEp