Case study: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Screening a skyscraper's double skin

PNC Tower's south face is a full-height glass cavity that breathes. Connecticut Screen Works® panels sit in the ventilation openings across that facade, the same system sold for a back porch, specified at height.

Product
Screen Wall System®
Sector
Commercial high-rise
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Frame
Custom manufactured to order
The tapering glass facade of PNC Tower in Pittsburgh, its ventilation openings fitted with screen panels
The tapering glass facade of PNC Tower in Pittsburgh, its ventilation openings fitted with screen panelsCommercial high-rise

A double-skin facade only works if air can move through the cavity. That means openings, and openings on a tower mean a screen that will not sag, will not tear, and will not have to be reached twice.

The panels are the standard Screen Wall System® assembly: an extruded aluminium master frame, dividers where the layout calls for them, and a screen infill. What changes on a job like this is not the system but the specification around it, every panel sized individually, finished to the architect's colour, and shipped to a schedule.

It is the clearest illustration of what the product line actually is. There is no consumer version and no contract version. There is one panel system, custom manufactured to order, and the same 30 year limited warranty applies whether it goes on a tower in Pittsburgh or a deck in Wallingford.

01The system

The same assembly, photographed in the shop.

We hold one photograph of the finished tower, and it is the one above. Rather than reprint it three times, here is the panel system itself: the frame, the testing it goes through, and the same assembly on installations we can photograph up close.

Specifying screening on a commercial project?

The submittal package, component details and CAD set are all available, and our staff will review a plan with you at the design stage rather than after it is drawn.