ADVANCED INTERLAYER SOLUTIONS

SentryGlas®: Letting the outdoors in to create the ultimate shopping experience

Image © Kevin Chu + Jessica Paul Photography. Courtesy of W&W Glass, LLC
This area of the mall houses many of the leading high-end retailers and the owners and architects wanted it to appear as an open, expansive space. Image © Kevin Chu + Jessica Paul Photography. Courtesy of W&W Glass, LLC
The Planar support system on the outside, above the glass panels results in a sleek design, with fewer obstructions, ultimately delivering greater transparency. Image courtesy of W&W Glass, LLC

Opening in 2019, American Dream, a retail and entertainment complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey is finally becoming a reality after nearly 16 years of site planning and development, different owners and more than $5 billion of investment.

 

It has certainly been worth the wait, with the impressive five million square foot (464,500 m2) structure housing both retail and entertainment/attractions/dining outlets − in a 45/55% split – along with a proposed plan to build North America’s largest indoor water park.

The external façade of the building, owned by Canadabased Triple Five Worldwide, has been completely revamped, replacing the locally badged “eyesore” used on an earlier guise, called Xanadu. Of particular note − and dominating a large section of the building’s roofline − is the huge 99 x 239 ft (30 x 73 m) barrelvault skylight, created using the Pilkington Planar™ system, with the glazing exploiting the functional and aesthetic capabilities of the SentryGlas®ionoplast interlayer from Trosifol™.

According to Chris Lalonde of W&W Glass, LLC, the exclusive North American distributor of the Pilkington Planar™ pointsupported glass system: “This area of the complex houses many of the leading high-end retailers. The owners and architects wanted it to appear as an open, expansive space that brought the outdoors inside, but kept the environment comfortable for visitors. Light transmittance and solar control are important and with the low-e coating on the glass and the SentryGlas® interlayer, the panels let in plenty of light… but not too much.”

GH+A Design Studios, the project design firm for the complex, describes it as “a new model, a multi-dimensional, multifaceted family destination. The high-level vision was taking the bones of a retail center and reimagining it.”

According to Tony Pasqualino from Adamson Architects, the architect of record on the project: “The original design from GH+A called for a large open atrium, which let in a lot of daylight, in order to deliver an outdoor feel. We took its atrium design concept and developed it on our Architectural drawings in conjunction with McNamara Salvia, the Engineer of Record and designer of the skylight steel support structure. The initial design had an internal steel support structure underneath the glass, and mullions skylight system, but this was superseded by the existing design, which deploys the Pilkington Planar™ point-supported system outboard of the glass panels and suspended from 16 in diameter rolled steel arches. This second iteration results in a much cleaner appearance, with fewer obstructions − utilising 726 7 ft x 4 ft 9 in (2.13 x 1.45 m) insulated laminated glass units − ultimately delivering greater transparency.

Application

  • Roofs & Overhead
  • Balustrades & Railings

Region

  • USA + Canada

Interlayer

  • SentryGlas®

Architect

  • Adamson Architects

Laminator

  • W&W Glass
  • Thiele Glas

Glazing Contractor

  • PCL Construction

Engineer

  • McNamara Salvia

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