PITTSBURGH, December 28, 2017 — Multinational clothing retailer H&M wants people to “stop in their tracks” when they see the company’s first flagship store in Canada. To achieve that goal, Petroff Partnership Architects (PPA) specified Walker Textures^® acid-etched Opaque on Starphire Ultra-Clear^® low-iron glass by Vitro Architectural Glass. The result is a stunning visual of glass and illumination at the bustling intersection of Yonge and Dundas streets in Toronto, also commonly known as “Times Square North.”

To meet the criteria outlined by H&M during design meetings, PPA designed the façade to be fully illuminated with maximum exposure through the use of Starphire^® glass. By using Starphire^® glass for the vision panels at street level, the architect ensured that there would be no color shift, a common concern with the green hue inherent in clear glass.

Acid-etching on all four surfaces of the insulating glass units provides the highest level of translucency without affecting the amount of light transmission from the light panels within the curtain wall system.

Using etched glass in this manner was unprecedented for the architect. After testing several variations of products using clear and etched surfaces, PPA concluded that the four-surface design with acid-etched Opaque best achieved the desired look. The architect’s use of Opaque glazing units in previous projects had been limited to the more traditional function of presenting a glazed surface with no visibility to the interior space, but the H&M project was PPA’s first design in which a curtain wall system was fully illuminated as part of the building envelope system.

For more information about Starphire Ultra-Clear^® low-iron glass by Vitro Architectural Glass or acid-etched Opaque glazing units by Walker Glass, visit www.vitroglazings.com or walkerglass.com.

Starphire^® and Starphire Ultra-Clear^® are registered trademarks owned by Vitro.
Walker Textures^® is a registered trademark of Walker Glass Limited.

About Vitro Architectural Glass

Vitro Architectural Glass, part of Vitro, S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV: VITROA), is the largest glass producer in the Western Hemisphere, manufacturing a range of industry-leading, energy-efficient, high-performance products such as Solarban^®, Sungate^® and Starphire Ultra-Clear^® glasses. Committed to continually raising the industry standard for sustainability, Vitro was the first U.S. glass manufacturer to have its complete collection of architectural glass products earn Cradle to Cradle Certified^® status and the first North American manufacturer to publish third-party verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for flat glass and processed glass products. Additionally, as of April 2024, all Vitro architectural glass products meet the Top 20% Low Embodied Carbon (LEC) material Global Warming Potential (GWP) threshold the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) established pursuant to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and related guidance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Vitro operates seven glass production facilities across North America, four residential glass fabrication plants in Canada and one of the world’s largest glass research and development facilities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit VitroGlazings.com.

Media Contact:
Robert J. Struble
Vitro Architectural Glass
412-820-8138
rstruble@vitro.com
www.vitroglazings.com