Curtain Wall Facade on 660 Fifth Avenue | Island Exterior Fabricators

This midcentury tower at 660 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan received a redesign by architect KPF using 1,600 megapanels manufactured in New York by Island Exterior Fabricators.

The state-of-the-art megapanel facade was designed for maximum occupant comfort and to reduce energy consumption. Island's design and engineering teams tailored the facade system to meet strict thermal and air/water infiltration performance requirements.

Aluminum Framing System

To achieve the architect’s goal of windows spanning from floor to floor and column to column, Island developed a reinforced aluminum-framed system during the design-assist phase, enabling the company to produce its largest fully glazed panels to date, measuring 19’1” wide and 11’ tall. The average panel weighs roughly 4,000 pounds, with the glass alone weighing nearly 2,600 pounds. This required the design of custom brackets allowing each megapanel to be anchored directly to the building’s existing steel structure.

Glass Selection

The Island project team selected glass carefully based on performance, quality, and flatness, taking into account the manufacturer’s production capabilities, lead time, and experience. The selected vendor, Interpane, produced the glass in Germany (incorporating a structural interlayer designed to reduce weight) before shipment in open-top containers to the Island factory.

Transporting the Panels

Transporting the finished panels to the site required considerable planning, as the project’s dense urban location made staging difficult. Island developed a project-specific methodology to address this issue, packing units vertically and giving the ability to pick directly from each container to the building’s superstructure. This method also created productivity advantages by eliminating double-handling on-site.

Installation

Installing the large-format panels in a busy Manhattan setting presented its own set of challenges. Island's solution used a tower crane with a 218-foot radius at the roof level (after careful study to confirm that the boom would clear adjacent structures). This eliminated the need for a ground-based crane. Several smaller cranes installed the tower crane, including a temporary derrick at the roof level for final assembly and a mobile crane at street level to assemble the boom. This solution required intensive engineering and close coordination with Turner Construction and the NYC Department of Buildings.

Project Details