Cirque, Dallas, TX
PROJECT OVERVIEW: Located in the heart of Dallas’s posh Victory Park district, Cirque is a shimmering 28-story luxury residential tower that uses high-performance Solarban 70XL glass by PPG to accentuate both its views and upscale urban glamour. The 530,000 square-foot structure has more than 250 mixed-use apartments, along with ground-level retail shops and a 25,000 square-foot urban garden at the sixth-floor level. Page Southerland Page was the architect of record while Gromatzky Dupree & Associates served as the design architect for the building’s shell and residential units. Charles Gromatzky, principal at Gromatzky Dupree & Associates, says that because Cirque was built on a small, oddly shaped site, the design team chose to elongate the curving south face of the building, which faces downtown Dallas, to increase the amount of visual square footage and capitalize on its spectacular city views. The result is a long, arcing glass façade with recessed glass balconies anchored to a pre-cast concrete wrap. Gromatzky said Solarban 70XL glass was specified for the project because of its clear appearance and ability to minimize solar heat gain. “Because it is a residential building, we wanted a high-performing glass that was also highly transparent, not reflective like the glass often used in office buildings,” he explained. Introduced in 2005, Solarban 70XL glass has Visible Light Transmittance (VLT) of 64 percent and a Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) of 0.27 in a standard one-inch insulating glass unit. The resulting Light to Solar Gain (LSG) ratio of 2.37 remains the highest in the industry, even five years after the product’s debut. Gromatzky said the glass, which covers approximately 60 percent of the building’s surface, has proved to be the right choice for Cirque. “We liked the end result of the color, which goes from clear to a very soft green,” he said. “It blends with the contemporary look of the other buildings in the plaza. Residents looking out from the building especially like the glass because the transparency doesn’t change the color of the outside world.” Victory Park, home to Cirque, is a $3 billion commercial and residential development that hosts some of Dallas’s most desirable galleries, boutiques and restaurants, as well as the American Airlines Arena, where the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and the NHL’s Dallas Stars play. Cirque was named the Grand Award winner for outstanding high-rise apartment design at the 2009 Pacific Coast Builders Conference. Founded in 1984, Gromatzky Dupree & Associates is a full-service architectural, interior design, master planning and programming services firm with offices in Dallas, Tucson and Phoenix. Page Southerland Page, Houston, is an architecture and engineering firm that specializes in health care, higher education, science and technology, government and civic design projects. The company has been in business since 1898 when it formed as Page Brothers Architects in Austin. For more information on Solarban 70XL glass, or to request samples, call 1-888-PPG-IDEA (772-4332) or visit www.ppgideascapes.com. Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG Glass) |