The newly constructed Pikes Peak Summit House visitor center in Cascade, Colo., was designed to provide a seamless, immersive visitor experience. Upon arrival at the 14,000-foot summit, visitors are able to focus on and be enveloped by the natural forms of the mountain as well as the expansive views of the rugged landscape surrounding “America's Mountain.”

To maximize the visitor center’s ability to meet the needs of the nearly 1 million people who annually reach the Pikes Peak summit to take in the magnificent views and to assist in enhancing the building’s energy efficiency, RTA Architects Inc. of Colorado Springs, Colo., selected Solarban^® 70 glass by Vitro Architectural Glass. Solarban^® 70 glass strikes the right balance between form and function with a transparent, color-neutral aesthetic and unprecedented solar control and visible light transmittance (VLT). When coupled with conventional clear glass in a one-inch insulating glass unit (IGU), Solarban^® 70 glass features a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.27 and VLT of 64%.

Glass fabricator Oldcastle Denver and glazing contractor El Paso Glass were partners in realizing the project. Walker Glass sold 10,000 square feet of Solarban^® 70 glass for the 38,000-square-foot Summit House. “I believe they had to design this project to meet hurricane loads as they receive sustained windspeeds well above 100 mph,” says Ed Bartlett, architectural manager, Walker Glass. “Solarban^® 70 glass was the glass of choice.”