by Shane Henson — February 25, 2013—SAGE Electrochromics, a manufacturer of an electronically tintable glass that improves the way people experience daylight in buildings, recently completed the installation of its SageGlass for two government buildings.
The first building, Cottage Grove City Hall in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, is now using the company’s dynamic glass to control and optimize natural daylight so the city council can better conduct its business. The Cottage Grove City Hall installed a 30-foot x 10-foot curtain wall of SageGlass in the city council chambers to provide natural light and a view to the outdoors throughout the day, with the ability to darken the glass on demand when needed for showing videos and presentations. vThe newly constructed 67,000-square-foot facility was designed to improve the way Cottage Grove serves its residents. According to architect John McNamara, a partner at Wold Architects and Engineers, the room where SageGlass was installed required an advanced glazing technology to manage problematic sun conditions.
The Province of Utrecht in the Netherlands also reached out to SAGE Electrochromics for help. The company installed its glass within the province’s Provincial House (Provinciehuis Ultrecht) to solve sun glare and heat gain problems that hindered legislative business.
Due to the glare caused by the out-of-reach skylight, council members were unable to use the space for audio-visual presentations, which was one of the primary functions of the room, said SAGE Electrochromics. The Provincial House installed SageGlass underneath the existing skylight to solve the problem.
Thirty-two SageGlass skylights now provide four zones of sun control that can be tinted and cleared on-demand with the push of a button. In addition to the sun glare control, SageGlass also offers the Provincial House energy efficiency benefits by controlling solar heat gain that can build up over the day, reducing the building’s heating, air conditioning and ventilation needs.
