HQ Apartments

When Kraus-Anderson Construction started planning their new headquarters, they decided to go big. In addition to their flagship office, their new structure would include a 17-story apartment building, retail shops and a restaurant, taking up an entire city block. A project of this magnitude needed to meet strict performance requirements for hundreds of windows — and that’s where Pella came in.

Windows made up a significant percentage of the tall building’s façade, so water, thermal and structural performance standards were much more stringent than typical commercial projects. Kraus-Anderson determined they’d need to perform tests on a substantial mockup to choose the products that would best fit the specs. Together with Pella, the team went to the lab with a 40-ft. wall section to perform intensive air, water and structural tests on several different window systems, including competitive aluminum and Pella® fiberglass windows.

The series of seven air, water and structural tests culminated with dynamic water testing that was powered by an airplane engine. Since projects of this scale often utilize aluminum window systems, the team expected the aluminum option to outperform Pella’s fiberglass windows. However, Pella® Impervia® fiberglass windows not only passed the battery of tests, but they surpassed the competitor — proving their superior air, water and structural performance.

Before installation began, the Pella Architectural Solutions team collaborated with Kraus-Anderson to determine flashing procedures and installation methods for fixed and awning products. Pella provided preliminary installation drawings and thermal modeling, as well as a complete design analysis to determine where steel was needed to reinforce the window assembly.

Throughout construction, Pella’s fiberglass windows were field tested to ensure the flashing and window systems performed as expected. The result: 100% of the windows tested passed. Kraus-Anderson got the performance they were looking for and better thermal performance than aluminum.