One Million Square Feet Of Glass

Joseph Paxton's original, 1851 Crystal Palace had nearly one million square feet of glass.

Our long love affair with light, and windows: The 1851 Crystal Palace sparked a desire for glass that continues to evolve. It was a brilliant spectacle and light years ahead of its time. “To anyone arriving at Hyde Park, the first sight of the Crystal Palace, floating above the trees, sparkling in sunshine, would have been a moment of knee-weakening splendor,” writes Bill Bryson in At Home,  a history of the world told through accounts of private life.  “… the idea of strolling through cubic acres of airy light inside a building was dazzling — indeed, giddying,” he says of the massive structure built in 1851 in London, England.

The Crystal Palace, designed by Sir Joseph Paxton and assembled in just five months, boasted almost one million square feet of glass and covered 7.7 hectares. It was the world’s largest building, erected for the first world’s fair, and marked a major milestone in the evolution of architectural glass. But darkness eventually descended on the Palace as it fell into financial ruin and burned to the ground in 1936.

Still, the door had opened on our love affair with light. Crystal Palaces sprang up around the world, including Picton, Ont., where a glass-and-wood structure built at the fairgrounds in 1887 is the only North American survivor. With windows on all sides of its cruciform plan, it proved a tempting target for vandals and spent 40 years boarded up until plastic sheeting replaced glass during restoration in the 1990s.

Though less splendiferous than London’s Crystal Palace, copy-cat versions all aimed to let maximum sun shine in. Construction of these glass-walled wonders was helped by two developments in the mid-1800s: cutting-edge technology that boosted the cheap production of sheet glass, and Britain’s abolishment of crippling window and glass taxes. Before that, people often bricked up their windows rather than put in expensive glass.

The story of windows through the ages is an illuminating one. Imagine moving day in the 16th century, for example, when you packed them up to take with you. Or consider the dilemma of trial witnesses testifying pre-1890s when judges deemed window glass too wavy to allow an accurate view of events.

Architectural historian Shannon Kyles praises the "irregularities" in her 1830s sash windows. At one time, courts rejected testimony of witnesses describing events seen through a window because the glass was too wavy.

But one man’s distortion is another woman’s delight, as Shannon Kyles gazes through the “irregularities” of her 1830s sash windows at the trees beyond. “I just love windows!” declares the architectural historian. Her Regency-style cottage, in Prince Edward County, has at least 20 that she took pains to preserve when she moved and rebuilt the house four years ago. “Loads of glass is wonderful,” says Kyles. “You can stand in a room in the middle of winter and still be comfortable — and you can see in four directions.”

She’s so enamoured of “lovely old windows” that she’s building an entire room out of them. And she’s even willing to pick up other people’s discards if the glass has imperfections or is crown or leaded.

Early window panes were made from crown glass that was blown and spun, causing a circular pattern in the centre. “People are just tossing them,” Kyles complains about old windows. “I have seen some fabulous original Arts and Crafts windows head to the landfills. It’s unbelievable.”

She takes on the notion that new vinyl-framed double- or triple-glazing is more energy-efficient. Properly restored old windows fitted with a storm are actually more energy-efficient than new ones, maintains Kyles, who’s made a video offering proof. She and other heritage conservationists would like to see the government offer tax incentives to restore, rather than replace, historic windows.

As an architectural feature, they shed light on society’s collective psyche, according to Kyles, who teaches architecture at Hamilton’s Mohawk College and explains building styles on her website, ontarioarchitecture.com. Back in the 14th and 15th centuries, house windows were placed high up for security reasons, she says. But now, “there’s glass on every side and floor because people aren’t afraid of someone just barging in and killing them.”

Architect Philip Johnson's innovative Glass house, built in New Canaan, Conn., in 1949.

That message is crystal clear in late American architect Philip Johnson’s famous Glass House, built in 1949 in New Canaan, Conn. With its fishbowl-like façade and open plan, the rectangular residence hides nothing from the outside world. In recent decades, glass walls have taken an upward turn as condo towers continue to sprout across the GTA skyline. But what goes up on those vertical crystal palaces has occasionally come down, in the form of glass showers.

Several times in recent years, downtown pedestrians have dodged pieces of balcony panels or outer windows that spontaneously shattered. Last fall, three class action lawsuits by hundreds of condo residents who lost the use of their balconies were given the green light to proceed after a dozen glass panes from their highrises plummeted to the street. Other incidents involved residential floors above the Shangri-La Hotel on University Ave. and the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville.

While these cases made headlines because of their location, falling glass isn’t new, says an engineer who’s studied the phenomenon for 30 years. Spontaneous breakage can occur in the first few years of a building’s life and only in fully tempered glass affected by a combination of factors such as temperature cycles and the presence of tiny imperfections, says Mark Brook, a partner at BVDA Façade Engineering.

Annealed glass, used in house windows, and heat-strengthened glass, used for large panes in commercial buildings, aren’t affected, he says. The strongest type, fully tempered glass that breaks into tiny cubes, is used in places that are susceptible to impact. Brook forecasts more — though not widespread — glass showers as young buildings settle in. “It’s highly unlikely it will be raining down for the next 10 years,” says Brook, who investigated some of the publicized incidents.

Most of the new towers going up now use laminated glass, made of two bonded layers that hold together when broken, he adds.  A window of opportunity, perhaps, for the crystal palaces of tomorrow?