Chihuly Glasshouse 

The basics:

Glass artist and Seattle native Dale Chihuly joined with the Seattle Center to create a glass installation located at the base of the Space Needle in Seattle, Wash. It includes the existing arcade building, which  is now the exhibition hall, a sculpture garden and a glass house as the centerpiece of the project. C...

Chihuly Glasshouse 

The basics:

Glass artist and Seattle native Dale Chihuly joined with the Seattle Center to create a glass installation located at the base of the Space Needle in Seattle, Wash. It includes the existing arcade building, which  is now the exhibition hall, a sculpture garden and a glass house as the centerpiece of the project. Chihuly populated the space with a combination of artworks from earlier in his career and new sculptures.

The centerpiece of Chihuly Garden and Glass is the Glasshouse, the result of Chihuly’s lifelong appreciation for conservatories. The design draws inspiration from Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and the Crystal Palace in London. The installation in the Glasshouse is an expansive, 100-foot long sculpture. Made of many individual elements, it is one of Chihuly’s largest suspended sculptures.

The project is expected to receive LEED Silver certification.

The glass: Guardian SunGuard SuperNeutral 62

The Glasshouse mimics a greenhouse, with a minimum of steel framing and 28,000sf of glass, coated with Guardian SunGuard SuperNeutral 62 on clear. Key glass decision points included meeting the tough City of Seattle energy requirements, having NFRC-approved data and the 8 mm thickness of the low-E glass was required to meet wind and structural requirements.

Chihuly was very particular about the transmitted color and a very good color rendering index, so the art inside showed its true colors through the glass; not filtered, muted or changed by the glass. The design team spent a lot of time looking at the colors of the sculpture through the glass. There was also discussion about what the iconic Space Needle would look like when viewed from the interior of the building. SN62 is the only product that met all of these requirements. 

Also featured on the renovated exhibition hall glass, SN 62 has a visible light transmission of 62 percent and a solar at gain coefficient of .31.

Artwork © Copyright, Chihuly Studio, 2012, all rights reserved. Photo by Ben Benschneider