Solarban® 90 glass helps convert historic Chicago building into boutique hotel

For many years, the Atlantic Bank Building on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue was an eyesore on the city’s most famous boulevard. Now, thanks to the efforts of architects Hirsch Associates and owner Oxford Capital Group, the structure has been transformed into the 18-story Hotel Julian, now crowned by a glittering six-story jewel fabricated with Solarban® 90 glass by Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG Glass).

Following guidelines for the original building that suggested how to add floors in its future, Hirsch Associates glazed the new hotel’s top six floors with Solarban® 90 glass, a recent development in the evolution of solar control low-emissivity (low-e) glass.

In the tradition of Vitro’s popular family of low‑e glasses, Solarban® 90 glass conveys an appearance similar to that of conventional clear glass in both color and reflectance while delivering an exceptional solar heat gain coefficient of 0.23 percent and visible light transmittance (VLT) of 51% in a standard 1-inch insulating glass unit (IGU). Together, the daylighting and solar control enable Hotel Julian to offer all the charms of a classic, old-world hotel along with the environmental performance and comforts of a modern one.

Named after St. Julian, the patron saint of travelers, the former 12-story building has been fully transformed by its $75 million investment. Now open for more than two years, the newly refurbished venue is successfully attracting tourists to Chicago’s Millennium Park area while gaining an architectural stature worthy of its many famous neighbors near the Magnificent Mile.

For more information about Solarban® 90 glass and Vitro Glass’s full line of architectural glasses, visit www.vitroglazings.com or call 1-855-VTRO-GLS (887-6457).