One of the least celebrated may be the architect’s use of WHITEWATER glass, which incorporated a proprietary low-iron formulation developed by PPG in the 1930s to make glass clearer and more transparent.
In 2009, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, owners and caretakers of Fallingwater, honored Wright’s allegiance to low-iron glass by initiating a five-year project to replace more than 300 windows in the historic, wood-bound home with replicas fabricated from STARPHIRE(R) ultra-clear glass, an advanced low-iron glass that PPG introduced 25 years ago.
An historic product in its own right, Starphire glass remains the clearest, most transparent commercial float glass available today – a quarter-century after its debut – with visible light transmittance (VLT) of 91 percent in a standard ¼-inch (6-millimeter) thickness.
Frank Lloyd Wright specified low-iron glass for its capacity to diminish the visual barrier between Fallingwater and its iconic creek-top setting. Starphire glass is commonly selected by today’s leading architects to achieve a similar objective. To learn more about Starphire glass, including its ability to function with SOLARBAN(R) lowemissivity glasses as part of an environmentally advanced glazing system, visit www.ppgstarphire.com.
Contact: Robert J. Struble PPG Flat Glass rstruble@ppg.com 412-820-8138 www.ppgideascapes.com
Solarban and Starphire are registered trademarks of PPG Industries Ohio, Inc. Editor’s Note: High-resolution photography is available upon request.
25th anniversary of STARPHIRE glass traces history, heritage to Fallingwater
Date: 2 September 2015
Source: PPG Flat Glass
Historic home among first to feature PPG low-iron glass, precursor to STARPHIRE glass. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater is known for many architectural firsts.