The Corning Museum of Glass - North Wing Expansion

Simplicity reigns.

Vanceva Saflex facade and minimalist designshowcase the North Wing expansion of the Corning Museum of Glass installation.

With its greenhouse-style use of glass, the new 100,000-square-foot North Wing expansion of the Corning Museum of Glass fuses the line between built and natural environments. The square, minimalist design by architect Thomas Phifer and Partners features a 16-meter-high glass façade that spans 2,000 square meters, offering a sweeping panoramic view of the museum grounds. The new expansion houses a collection of contemporary art. In addition to the 26,000-square-foot contemporary art gallery, the Corning Museum’s new North Wing provides access to a newly renovated 500-seat facility for glass-making demonstrations and events.

Creating a scenic overlook of Corning’s newly landscaped lawns, the glass façade integrates its natural setting, blending in with winter snow and floating above the green lawn in summer. Using a combination of TG-SAFEplus®, TG-PROTECTcolor® and TG-PRINTdigital®, Thiele Glas in Germany fabricated the 140 single, 3.20 × 7.20 meter panes to build a virtually seamless reflective surface. The North Wing’s exterior construction forms a unique composition of large laminated glass panes with vertical aluminum profiles that appear as a single unit, similar to the arrangement of an oversized showcase. The project combines Saflex DG structural interlayer with Vanceva Polar White opaque interlayer and digitally printed white dot matrix for a mix of transparent and translucent interlayers in each individual pane. The heavy 1,000-kilogram panes are held in place by aluminum profiles, which are bonded to the glass with silicone and mounted to the façade construction.

A skylight roof allows natural light to filter down the 20-foot curvilinear concrete walls into the galleries. Walls finished in white keep the focus on the glass art. Such daylighting allows visitors to view exhibits in the purest light possible, enabling them to notice subtle differences in artworks as the sun, weather, and seasons change. Saflex structural interlayer (DG) is an ideal choice for this prestigious project as it meets the technical and aesthetic requirements necessary to achieve the architect’s vision. With its superior structural capacity, the rigid and robust TG-SAFEplus offers safety and security for the large format panes constructing the exterior façade. It also provides UV control and noise abatement essential for a museum environment. TGPROTECTcolor is a composite of two or more glass sheets bonded together with a choice of more than 5,000 PVB film colors.

In this case, Vanceva Polar White interlayer was selected for an opaque effect and was paired with a white dot matrix pattern using TG-PRINTdigital laminated safety glass. The final result is a remarkable building that allows visitors to experience moments of transparence and reflection, whether looking at art glass exhibits inside the building or looking outward at the changing landscape.