Miami's 1450 Brickell Office Tower Installs Nation's Most Wind-Resistant Glass Curtain Wall

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(MIAMI, FL) -- Miami's Brickell Avenue corridor made international headlines in 2005 when Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma blew out tens of thousands of windows, exposing downtown Miami businesses to devastating winds and flooding rains. Now, developers are taking steps to ensure their buildings - and their tenants' businesses - are safe when the next storm strikes. 1450 Brickell, the 586,000 square-foot 'class-A' tower slated for delivery in the first quarter of 2010, is leading this movement with a glass curtain wall system fashioned entirely out of large missile impact resistant glass that withstood wind loads of up to 327 mph during lab testing. To put this strength into perspective, Hurricane Andrew made landfall in South Florida in 1992 with 155 mph winds.

Upon completion, 1450 Brickell will sport one of the strongest glass façades of any commercial building in the nation, according to Enclos Corp., the specialty façade contractor that designed and installed the curtain wall system."After enduring one of the most rigorous sets of glass testing ever conducted in the United States, I can say with confidence that 1450 Brickell's curtain wall system will set a new standard for building strength," said Troy Johnson, project executive for Enclos Corp.

While Miami-Dade County building code requires the installation of large missile impact resistant glass for the first 30-feet of a building's exterior, the entirety of 1450 Brickell's 35-story curtain wall system will comprise large missile impact glass. Extensive lab trials exposed the 1450 Brickell façade to a series of experiments replicating extreme conditions, including static and dynamic water testing, air flow testing, wind load testing, and impact testing, among others. The current system withstood every test and has been approved by Miami-Dade County. 1450 Brickell is the only office building in the market to meet this standard for wind resistance.

1450 Brickell's curtain wall system is fabricated with two panes of glass and a triple-layer core comprised of polyvinyl butyral (PVB) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film, a combination that improves impact resistance, safety, retention, energy efficiency, sound attenuation and UV blocking. In addition, the glass incorporates a Low-E coating on one of the surfaces, which enhances solar performance by 25% compared to an uncoated glass laminate. Along these lines, 1450 Brickell is the first and only office tower in Miami to earn LEED Gold pre-certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

"Construction quality has been a chief priority of ours since we began planning 1450 Brickell, so we're proud that our tower's glass façade will be the strongest in our market," said Alan Ojeda, CEO of Rilea Group, the Miami-based development firm responsible for building 1450 Brickell. "In setting a new threshold for curtain wall engineering and construction, 1450 Brickell is offering tenants a peace of mind that cannot be found elsewhere in Miami - or the United States."

The Tower's curtain wall system, now more than 50-percent complete, will offer tenants sweeping views in every direction, including east to Biscayne Bay. Wide-open floor plates will range in size from 24,000 square-feet to 25,600 square-feet, plus five double-high loft-style offices ideal for design-conscious firms.

1450 Brickell and the adjacent One Broadway, a 371-unit luxury apartment high rise developed by Rilea Group in 2006, combine to form a full square block of mixed-use commercial and residential development between Brickell Avenue and South Miami Avenue, at the entrance to Miami's Brickell Financial District. The pedestrian-friendly area is home to more than 30,000 square-feet of ground-level retail space, including 10,000 square-feet of space within 1450 Brickell. Businesses located in the immediate vicinity of 1450 Brickell include Segafredo Brickell, Novecento, Pieduck's Pizza, Brickell Irish Pub, LA Fitness, and Ecolav Miami, a sustainable dry cleaning service.

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