The U.S. Bank Tower in Downtown Los Angeles underwent a $50 Million renovation in 2017, which included a redesigned lobby area and a new rooftop deck. The new Skyspace deck, designed by Gensler, offers panoramic views from its 985-ft high outdoor terrace, where visitors can see the city in all its glory right out to where the landscape merges with the Pacific Ocean. The 7′-8″ tall balustrades are supported by large brackets hidden under the finished floor, and uses triple laminated glass to minimize deformation under high wind loads and for improved serviceability.

The oldest city on the San Francisco Peninsula, Redwood City is rich in history and local lore. Just 27 miles from downtown San Francisco, the historic downtown was originally a port town during the gold rush. Today, the city is a center of high-tech industry, sitting at the mid-point of the San Francisco Bay Peninsula, and is known for its 255 sunny days a year and a profound sense of community.

The restoration and renovation of a four-parcel, mixed-use building on the Historic Main Street Corridor in Redwood City included the preservation of 3 historic storefronts from the 1920’s, including large sections of the existing exterior walls. The design team envisioned a neoclassical, mixed-use building, seeking to maintain and enhance the existing historic façades in keeping with their small-scale character and legacy. Designed by DES Architects with construction spearheaded by W.L. Butler, this living, historic structure was transformed into one four-story building at 851 Main Street. The entrance features an expansive interior structural glass wall in the main lobby area that was designed, engineered and supplied by Sentech Architectural Systems. This 25’ tall glass entrance wall utilizes Sentech’s VetraFin-G Series System, featuring an interior fin wall, full height glass fins, and laminated low iron glass panels. The highly transparent solution subdivides the entrance, creating an open space without obstructing the flow of light from the entrance skylight.

The Structural Glass Fin WallFour Seasons Private Residences in Los Angeles is a ritzy, 12-story high-rise residential complex that offers residents a curated lifestyle in one of the world’s most desirable and fashionable destinations. Located in the Beverly Grove neighborhood in the heart of Los Angeles, the building is located just blocks away from the glitz and glamour of Rodeo Drive, the Melrose District, the Avenues of Art and Design and North Robertson Boulevard. This project is the brand’s first North American stand-alone residential project- a collection of just 59 boutique, bespoke, luxury residences.

True to the brand, the design called for clean lines, world-class elegance, transparency, sunlit living spaces, and an openness to inspired, unobstructed city views.

True to the brand, the design called for clean lines, world-class elegance, transparency, sunlit living spaces, and an openness to inspired, unobstructed city views. An ode back to the mid-century design principles that defined Southern California living, the Private Residences embraces a seamless indoor and outdoor integrated experience that provides approximately 35,000 square feet of outdoor space throughout the development.

With that design mandate in mind, the team selected Sentech’s VetraFin Structural Glass System to welcome visitors and residents alike as they stop foot inside the space. The entryway’s structural glass entrance uses Sentech’s 18-foot high VetraFin-G System, a structural glass wall supported by full-height glass fins that span 42-feet across the valet entryway. This sleek façade abuts a backlit onyx wall, creating a sense of opulence befitting of the legendary luxury brand.

Anchoring the world’s innovation capital of Silicone Valley, Moffett Place’s six 8-story office towers sprawl across 55 acres and showcase 1.9 million square feet of state-of-the-art LEED Gold Certified office space that features multiple jumbo structural glass façades. 100% leased to Google, Moffett Place is characterized by top-of-the-line amenities and technical infrastructure. Additionally, these high-performance buildings incorporate robust strategies for sustainability and energy efficiency. The six buildings are clustered to promote connectivity, and assembled around wide pedestrian promenades, ample social and recreational space, and even public art sculptures- ensuring 35% of the campus is dedicated to open space.

With a design emphasis on collaborative culture and personal wellness, structural glass was as obvious choice to promote transparency, create light-filled spaces, and reduce the barrier between building and outside environment.

The thoughtful campus composition and design incorporates multiple jumbo structural glass façades and overhead canopies featuring Sentech’s VetraFin G-Series System, and VetraPoint Connection Series, utilizing oversized glass and 316 stainless steel fittings. The VetraFin structural glass façades pictured utilize jumbo glass panels that soar 28-feet in height. With a design emphasis on collaborative culture and personal wellness, structural glass was as obvious choice to promote transparency, create light-filled spaces and a feeling of openness, and reduce the barrier between the building and the outside environment. The result? Seamless, transparent and stunning views of the sprawling corporate complex, and a work-live-play environment that promotes connectivity and wellness.

As part of the $60-million renovation of the tallest skyscraper in the seismically active west, the spectacular lobby upgrade at the U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles included the addition of a 35-ft tall curved glass fin façade, utlizing Sentech’s VetraFin G-Series System and VetraPoint Connection Series. The Gensler-designed lobby reinvigoration sought to provide elegance in overlapping geometries and circular forms, while maximizing natural light and transparency in the state-of-the-art lobby space. The lobby façade utilizes full-height jumbo glass fins and countersunk point supports to minimize structural obstruction and align with the design philosophy envisioned by the project team.

This award-winning, LEED Gold-certified structure is a 21,000 SF, two-story library with panoramic ocean views in Manhattan Beach, CA. It is one of the oldest continuous libraries in the Los Angeles Public Library System. The horizontal, active double-skin façade was intricately engineered and designed to dramatically reduce both energy costs and maintenance while preserving transparency. Utilizing low-e insulated floor-to-ceiling glass panels, this façade employs the idea of a ‘thermal blanket’- a pioneering design that uses an active double façade to respond to climate conditions and is considered transparent isolation. Aesthetically stunning, the high-performance façade creates a sense of functional openness, and the highly technical completed design is a testament to the successful multi-disciplinary collaboration and teamwork of all parties involved…resulting in an elegant, open civic space that captures the unique character and mesmerizing coastal setting of Manhattan Beach.

Winner of Glass Magazine’s 2019 award for Best Exterior Decorative Glass Application, the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA is Southern California’s largest aquarium. The 2019 expansion of the Pacific Visions wing was conceived as a futuristic vision for what aquariums should be- centers of innovation, imagination, creativity, and of wonder, respect and stewardship for the Ocean.

San Francisco-based EHDD architects, the award-winning firm who also designed the Aquarium of the Pacific’s original building, used inspiration from the organic environmental shapes and patterns surrounding the architectural landmark. Utilizing Sentech’s VetraFin S-Series System, Sentech partnered with EHDD and Buro Happold to design an open-joint steel aluminum carrier frame. In total, 839 reflective, blue, uniquely-shaped, triple-laminated decorative glass panels came together to create a gently curved, biomorphic, complex glass façade that evokes the depth and luminous splendor of the nearby Pacific Ocean.

A 33-story office tower located in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District, the recent renovation includes an enlarged entrance and a seamless, minimalist glass façade that brings more light into the space.

The La Jolla Commons Campus is located in the heart of San Diego, offering views of the Pacific Ocean, abundant retail and corporate office space and access to the city’s technology hub. The structure is one of the most sustainable high-rise office buildings in Southern California and was designed with the goal of saving operational and utility costs through improved energy and planning efficiency. The glass façade at the building lobby entrance is a highly transparent suspended glass fin system using jumbo-sized low-iron glass panels and minimal connections. The goal was to achieve a unique look, giving the illusion of unsupported glass that defies gravity.

10880 Wilshire Boulevard is a mixed-use office building located at the intersection of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevard in Westwood, California, also known as the “Gateway to Westwood”. Sentech’s 16’ tall glass panels are supported by a full height fin, providing stellar daylighting for the lobby space. The façade is seismically isolated and acts as a large diaphragm to accommodate inter-story drift deformation under seismic loads. The optical quality of the glass and precise installation tolerances were key to the project success and the stunning façade transparency.