Toronto Raptors training center unites bird-friendly Walker Glass with tinted and low-e glasses by Vitro Architectural Glass

When the architectural team at Guernsey, Oklahoma City, was tasked with designing BioSteel Centre, a world-class training facility for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, they had to address several competing demands. In addition to providing high levels of privacy and security for players and staff, the goal was to maximize views of nearby Lake Ontario while meeting local bird-safety and energy-efficiency mandates established by the city of Toronto. The solution was to glaze the 68,000-square-foot structure with with AviProTek® bird-friendly glass by Walker Textures® glass, acid-etched on tinted Optiblue® glass. This configuration, which creates the soft blue glass exterior, was then fabricated into triple-pane insulating glass units (IGUs) with Solarban® R100 solar control low-e glass. Optiblue and Solarban R100 glasses are both manufactured by Vitro Architectural Glass. Acid-etching Walker Glass’s AviProTek 215 dot pattern on Optiblue glass enabled architects to create a bird-safe privacy glass, while the addition of clear Solarban R100 glass reduced heating and air-conditioning costs and provided unobstructed lake views. AviProtek glass is available in multiple patterns developed by Walker Glass with input from bird researchers. When specified on the first (outdoor) surface of an IGU, the patterns help birds detect glass facades as barriers and thereby prevent them from colliding into buildings. When united with Solarban R100 glass in a triple-pane IGU, Optiblue glass provides exterior reflectance of 20 percent, visible light transmittance (VLT) of 27 percent, a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.21 and a winter nighttime u-value of 0.17. As a result of this customized glazing design, BioSteel Centre protects local wildlife and delivers an optimal balance of transparency, views and energy efficiency.