125 Years of Product Innovation and Evolution

Key product and system innovations that have driven the building industry forward over the past 125 years and continue to do so
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Hand Dryers: Then and Now

The first patent for perforated roll toilet paper was filed in 1891, but the hand-drying technology used in the Market and Fulton National Bank building was undoubtedly cloth towels, the sanitation method of choice for several preceding decades. That all changed with the introduction of paper towels in 1907, which gradually took over from cloth and became the dominant hand-drying technology in restrooms across the country—a technology that remains in widespread use today.

Electric hand dryers have a shorter but, in many ways, more dynamic history. The earliest patent was filed in 1921 for an invention that “…relates to improvements in drying apparatus and has for its object to provide a simple and efficient apparatus for delivering a blast of heated air for drying the face, hands, or hair of a person, or for drying jewelry, metal parts, glassware, or other articles.” The dryers that were manufactured based on this patent were called “electric towels” and were used in restrooms, barbershops, and factories across the country. They also established the “heated air” technology used by a range of hand-drying companies that emerged over the ensuing decades. While innovative at the time, this approach was noisy and inefficient, taking up to a minute to dry hands and wasting energy in the process. But it would still take more than 70 years for the next big breakthrough in hand dryers to occur: in 2001 when an American company introduced high-speed jets of air that blow water off of hands rather than just evaporating it.

This innovation swept the industry, driving continuous improvements in both features and performance such that today’s most advanced hand dryers are not only exponentially faster than their predecessors, they also include a wide range of features that provide far greater design flexibility: sensor-activated, touchless controls; adjustable speed and sound; HEPA filtration systems; adjustable heat settings; and multi-voltage options. These dryers are also far more energy efficient and environmentally responsible, with at least one leading manufacturer going so far as to develop full life-cycle assessments for its products following ISO 14040 standards.

While many of the elements circa restrooms in 1891 are still familiar today, the way we dry our hands is radically different—and the industry that has driven these changes continues to innovate, pushing restroom design and performance in exciting new directions, including fully integrated sink systems with soap, faucet, and dryer all mounted on the sink deck that are just now being introduced to the market.

Photo of an integrated sink system.

Photo courtesy of Excel Dryer, Inc.

The latest advancement in restroom design: the integrated sink system that combines on one sink deck all of the green elements of high-speed, energy-efficient dryers and touch-free soap dispensers with the water-saving capacity of sensor-activated, low-flow faucets to create the next generation in green restroom design.


Glass and Glazing: Then and Now

Although glass artifacts from more than 5,000 years ago have been found in Egypt, the Romans appear to be the first to have used glass for windows, perhaps as early as the 1st century CE. These early windows were small, irregularly made, and not very transparent. They were probably manufactured by blowing an elongated balloon of molten glass and cutting off the ends to create a glass cylinder that was then split and flattened to create what has subsequently been referred to as “broadsheet” glass. Like many technologies from the Roman era, manufacturing glass for windows declined during the Dark Ages, but began to pick up again in the early 14th century, when a new technique for making glass was introduced by French glass makers. “Crown” glass, as the new material was called, was also made by blowing molten glass, but this time into a sphere rather than a cylinder. The end of the sphere opposite the blowing pipe was then cut off while still molten and spun into a circular sheet of glass. Roughly the size and shape of a bottle base today, these small pieces of glass were typically installed in lattice frameworks made out of lead. Crown and broadsheet remained the dominant forms of glass making until polished plate glass—produced by a casting process, rather than by blowing—was introduced in the late 18th century. Then, in 1834, a new, advanced cylinder sheet process for making broadsheet glass was introduced, allowing much larger sheets to be produced. This, combined with significant drops in the overall cost of glass for windows, made this new method the dominant technology for manufacturing glass for the remainder of the 19th century—and it was probably the method used to create the single-pane, double-hung windows in the Market and Fulton National Bank Building.

In the intervening years, innovation in glass production and performance have taken off. The most consequential advance in manufacturing came in the late 1950s with the introduction of “float” glass, which is produced by floating glass on a bed of molten tin. This new process allowed glass to be continuously produced without any blowing, and was able to take full advantage of the automation and mass-production techniques sweeping through industries across the world at the time. The result was widespread availability of window glass in a range of sizes at affordable prices, and an explosion in the use of glass in buildings. This, in turn, drove a burst of innovation in glass features and performance that continues today: monolithic glass using body tints to control energy were first introduced in the 1950s. During the energy crisis of the 1970s, glazing really started to focus on how to become more energy efficient. The first coatings started with a reflective aesthetic in the 1960s, then evolved in the late 1980s to vacuum deposition coatings called soft coats. These coatings allowed for more visible light and an expanded color palate, as well as improved energy efficiency. Since then, vacuum deposition coatings have continuously improved to meet modern design goals. The glass industry continues to innovate with new technologies like dynamic glazing.

With such a wide and constantly growing range of glazing options available to architects, a key 21st century innovation has been the creation of digital tools that can help designers evaluate and select the precise glass product they want quickly, easily, and accurately. These tools now exist, allowing architects to: customize the performance properties they desire; visualize the glass they want from a variety of perspectives in a variety of weather conditions; evaluate and compare glass performance (light transmission, u-value, solar heat gain coefficient) for a variety of alternatives; calculate energy performance; and export the results to a BIM model. All within a seamless process designed to save architects time, while also giving them the flexibility to explore a wide range of glazing options and alternatives, some of which they may not have considered before.

Images of views seen through various kinds of glass and weather conditions.

Image courtesy of Guardian Glass North America

Visualization tools, like the one pictured here, represent a significant advancement in helping architects select glass products, allowing designers to virtually “see” and compare the aesthetic properties of glass through photo-realistic images of both exterior and interior applications.


Glass Walls: Then and Now

In 1891, exterior walls didn’t move, slide, or fold, and they certainly weren’t made of glass. A few experimental glass wall examples had been constructed in England (Oriel Chambers in 1864 and 16 Cook Street in 1866), but they were just that: experiments. And while cast iron facades—in some ways, the first curtain walls applied to nonresidential buildings—had been introduced several decades earlier, they were not in widespread use. Steel framing for larger buildings was becoming common, but it had not yet freed up the exterior wall from its role in structurally supporting the building. As a consequence, solid walls with punched openings for windows—like those in the Market and Fulton National Bank—were the norm. It would take more than 50 years for framing and glazing technologies to evolve and then combine into the glass curtain wall systems that dominate commercial building construction today; notably, with the design and construction of the Lever House building (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill) in New York City, New York, in 1952, and its many imitators and followers. But, even though today’s curtain walls provide virtually limitless design potential matched with a wide range of high-performance characteristics, they still remain fixed in place, even when parts of the glazing might be able to open and close.

Parallel to the development of the glass curtain wall, two other technologies also took off in the 1950s in terms of popularity and use: folding interior partitions for commercial and institutional buildings, and sliding glass doors for residential applications. Both involved the development of new materials for panels and frames. Perhaps even more important, both also involved significant innovation in the track and hardware configurations that actually allow these panels to fold and slide—all while meeting increasingly rigorous demands in terms of durability, ease of use, acoustic and thermal performance, aesthetics, and security.

Combined, the technological and system innovations in the folding partition, sliding glass door, and curtain wall industries laid the technical and conceptual groundwork for one of the latest advances in exterior wall design and construction: walls that are made of glass but that also fold, slide, and move.

Interior photo of the restaurant.

Photo courtesy of NanaWall Systems

The owners of this 25-year-old restaurant in Dallas, Texas, wanted to increase seating capacity inside and out. The architect, Dallas-based MSC Design, decided to include a folding glass wall as part of its overall plan for the space. This particular system was appealing because it offered 12-foot-high panels that let in plenty of daylight and because it allowed the floor track to carry the system’s weight, relieving stress on the header, which had not been engineered to carry such a load.

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record
Originally published in August 2016

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125 Years of Product Innovation and Evolution
Buyer's Guide
Total Acoustics™ performance from Armstrong Ceilings
Noise can impede concentration, healing, and learning. Total Acoustics™ ceilings feature the ideal combination of both sound absorption (NRC) and sound blocking (CAC)—complete noise control and design flexibility for every space. Rated good, better, best so you can easily choose the ceiling that’s right for your spaces.
Armstrong® Ceiling Solutions
www.armstrongceilings.com/totalacoustics
XLERATOR® Hand Dryer: Customizing Your Hand-Drying Solution
XLERATOR® has new enhanced standard features for adjusting sound, speed, and heat. Customize even further with the most options and accessories in the industry, featuring HEPA filtration and custom covers available in any color or with digital images to design the best hand-drying solution for any restroom environment.
Guardian CrystalBlue™ glass
Guardian CrystalBlue™ glass can be combined with many SunGuard® low-e products, giving architects a range of energy performances along with high visible light transmission in an in-demand, soft blue color. CrystalBlue glass is available coated and uncoated at 6-millimeter thickness in a variety of sizes.
Guardian Glass North America
www.guardianglass.com/commercial
NanaWall Opening Glass Walls
NanaWall Systems provides a wide range of opening glass walls for commercial environments that stand up to the daily commercial grind, as well as the challenges of wind, water, extreme temperatures, forced entry, impact, and structural load.
NanaWall Systems
www.nanawall.com
Terrazzo: The Art of Craft
Terrazzo fits any design plan from elegant simplicity to complex art patterns. With an unlimited color palette, varied aggregate choices, and state-of-the-art water-jet strip cutting, terrazzo is a designer’s dream. Terrazzo’s antimicrobial, durable, sustainable, and easy-to-maintain surface makes it the premium choice in flooring.
National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association
www.ntma.com