Design of Facade and Overhead All-Glass Structures in Building Renovations

The contemporary renovation of historic buildings often includes all-glass structures that allow architects to preserve the original building design and combine state-of-the-art glass structures with historic building architecture. The challenges in designing all-glass structures for historic buildings includes the design of connections to unknown substrates, adapting glass to intricate geometric boundaries, selecting systems that blend seamlessly with the historic building design, challenging façade movement isolation, and unknown structural behavior of the support system. Using design examples and providing recommended best design practices, the authors illustrate how these design challenges can be overcome, while minimizing the impact on the existing building structure.