Trosifol® Diamond White delivers no-bleed aesthetic and functional performance at colorful new Seattle headquarters building.

Colored structural glazing applications are appearing in a growing number of innovative architectural projects. These aesthetics can be combined with safety and structural strength with the application of interlayers – especially those from the impressive PVB and ionoplast portfolio from Trosifol™.

At this Seattle headquarters where Trosifol® Diamond White PVB has been combined with various shades to create a striking two colour effect on glass fins that adorn the exterior façade of the building.

The thin vertical fins impart and display variations of the same company-brand color on one side and brilliant white on the other.
Trosifol® Diamond White is the only totally opaque white interlayer, preventing the other colour to bleed through to the white sides of the fins.

According to Michael Zizek, Marketing Director at the laminator, Vitrum Glass Group: “The architect, NBBJ, and glazier, Walters and Wolf, had an idea of what they wanted and approached Vitrum for design assistance. The challenge was producing a fin with a strong vibrant color on one side and pure white on the other side.

“The technical team here at Vitrum determined that a combination of ceramic frit and high-opacity white PVB was the best solution and through mock-ups and trials we found that Trosifol® Diamond White was the ideal PVB interlayer for this application.”

Dale Alberda, Principal/Architect at NBBJ, explains: “The fins not only add color and dimensional relief, but also help control the amount of direct sunlight on the building skin.”

The 1,000 fins, covering approximately 10,000 ft2 (930 m2), were produced in four sizes, 12 in (30 cm) x 87 in (221 cm), 8 in (20.3 cm) x 87 in, 12 in x 63 in (160 cm) and 8 in x 63 in.

They were made up of two 6 mm (0.23 in) heat-strengthened Starphire Velour Etch glass panes on the external surfaces, with a laminate in between, comprising 0.030 in (0.76 mm) Trosifol® UltraClear PVB, 0.030 in Trosifol® Diamond White PVB and a ceramic frit, which was either ‘Curry’, ‘Forceful Orange’, ‘Nasturtium’ or ‘Golden Rod’.