U.S. glass-manufacturing company View has installed its Smart Windows as an integral design element of Avocet Tower, a 22-story, 370,000-square-foot office building in Washington, DC.
The Class-A building is a joint venture between Invesco Real Estate and Stonebridge.
Floor-to-ceiling View Smart Windows are featured throughout Avocet Tower to complement open floor plans, high ceilings, and a unique interactive sculpture above the entrance. The windows use artificial intelligence to automatically adjust in response to the sun in order to increase access to natural light and provide unobstructed 360-degree views, while eliminating the need for blinds and minimizing heat and glare.
“We built Avocet Tower to raise the bar for sustainable, wellness-focused design. View Smart Windows directly align with that goal,” said Jane Mahaffie, principal with Stonebridge. “View is a key amenity that enhances tenant wellbeing and provides unobstructed views while also enabling us to achieve LEED Platinum certification.”
“View Smart Windows were instrumental in our design goal to make Avocet Tower one of the healthiest, most energy efficient and smartest buildings in North America,” said Jon Pickard, Principal of Pickard Chilton. “View helped us to create an experience centered around natural light, beautiful views and human wellness, while also lowering the carbon footprint of the building.”
View Smart Windows offer significant health advantages by reducing the incidence of eyestrain and headaches by over 50%, according to the company. In a recent study, employees working next to View Smart Windows improved their sleep by 37 minutes per night, increased cognitive function by 42 percent and enhanced productivity by 14 percent.
“Developers and architects are recognizing the strong connection between buildings and human health and experience, and are investing to make properties healthier, more energy efficient and more adaptive to user needs,” said Brian Klansky, Regional Vice President of View.
In addition to the View Smart Windows installation, the building features an array of health-focused tenant amenities including a Dedicated Outside Air System (DOAS) and touchless entry in addition to numerous outdoor spaces and a fitness center.
Earlier this year, View announced the acquisition of IoTium, a provider of cloud-managed, software-defined IoT networks.
IoTium’ solutions enable building owners to achieve enterprise-grade security, reduce operating costs, and gain real-time visibility into their entire real estate portfolios, View said.
View had previously highlighted that real estate owners recognize the need to make their existing buildings secure and smart but they face several challenges to upgrade legacy networks. The firm said that IoTium solves this challenge, as the company’s edge-cloud solution works with both new and existing operations technology (OT) networks and also reduces operational costs by virtually eliminating on-site service visits.
View is installed and designed into 90 million square feet of buildings including offices, hospitals, airports, educational facilities, hotels and multi-family residences.
