 | Bob Crager of Lewis Street Glass is a 26 year veteran in the glass business. Lewis Street Glass is a leading Wichita Glass company, serving the entire Wichita/Sedgwick County area since 1919. They do anything and everything having to do with glass, both residential and commercial. They also do Auto glass. They are located at 743 South Market, facing Kellogg on the South, and you can reach them by phone at (316) 263-8259. You can email Bob Crager at bcrager@lewisstreetglass.com |
Glass
2007-05-01 11:11:00
Construction glass...is it used?
Question: What can you tell me about commercial glass?
Answer: As a matter of fact, with modern glass-making technology, there are many more glass applications being utilized in commercial buildings than ever before. Whether you’re talking about Commercial Buildings or private residences, in the Wichita area, you can drive around in many parts of the city where there is an abundance of different windows in many different architectural styles. These run from some of the original homes built in Wichita and viewable in old Cow Town, to the Riverside area, to the College Hill areas, to the original two story Victorian homes that were all the rage in early Wichita. The folks living here at that time who owned businesses and/or ran the banks, farmed the fields, pastured cattle, and liked the idea of raising a family in the Arkansas River Valley. There are still many of these older homes in the downtown urban areas of the city. Through the growth of Wichita over the years since its incorporation as a village in 1870, then its incorporation as a first class city in 1886, we’ve seen many new commercial buildings built to support this growing metropolis over the years. Hundreds of subdivisions built as residential additions to the city and based upon the time frame of those subdivisions, you’ll see a wide variance of the types and prices of the homes that were being built. In prosperous economic times, there were many homes and business buildings built that said money is not the object here, folks. We’re making a statement about our family, or our company and our successes. During other times, such as right after a period of war, there were many low end homes built to satisfy the need for cheap, no frills homes for those returning from the war who basically were starting over. They just needed a place to raise their family, nothing fancy necessary. And in those down turned economic times, commercial companies that were doing well continued to build expanding facilities, looking forward to the day when their businesses would be rolling along again.
The number of windows used in private home construction during those periods was also affected, and the larger high end homes used an abundance of great windows to allow the outside light inside, as well as offering views of the outside to the occupants.
The placement and size of those windows was important to the family that was planning to take up residency there, and so the builders made sure that they would offer many options to the customer for their new home. Most of the windows were of the double hung variety, utilizing the ropes and weights inside the window frames to allow the mostly smooth operation of the window sash. With no air conditioning in those days, it was kind of important that you be able to raise the windows to get whatever breeze that was available through your house. If you drive around in some of these neighborhoods today, you’ll be able to see from the windows that were included whether we were in prosperous economic times when those homes were constructed, or whether we were in a downturn economically.
In today’s world, whether we’re talking commercial or residential construction, there are so many choices, from a design standpoint, that you can have just about anything you might want in your residential or commercial windows.
The windows that are available today have thermo insulating qualities built into them so that you can lose or gain virtually nothing in the way of heat transfer through the glass panes. You can have windows custom designed for just about any architectural idea you might come up with, and the glass can include many different kinds of tinting or darkening features so that you don’t have to further deal with ultra violet light and other related problems.
The bottom line is that if you are not enjoying the windows in your home or business to the full extent, with the visibility or image you desire, there are lots of ways to change or update them so that you get the full benefit you should be getting from modern window technology...Yes, glass is being used much more in the construction of both homes and commercial buildings than ever before...more next month!
