Glass floors are made with transparent glass when it is useful to view something from above or below; whereas translucent glass is used when there is no need to view through. In either case, toughened glass is usually chosen, for its durability and resistance to breakage.
Translucent floors are sometimes set into outdoor sidewalks and pavements, or the floors of well-lit interior spaces, to daylight the space below. These are generally called pavement lights, and have a long history. [1]
Glass as a flooring material is used in both residential and commercial structures. Special hollow glass blocks known as '"glass pavers" are often used in combination with a metal frame. Glass floors are often lit from below with natural or artificial light, or may be treated as ordinary floor surfaces illuminated from above.
A German manufacturer of squash court floors has diversified into making glass floors for other sports, such as a glass basketball court. Their glass floors usually are translucent rather than transparent, and the line markings are indicated by illumination with LEDs below the floor. [2]
On occasion, transparent display cases are built into the floor, such as in the Museum of Sydney in Australia, where the remains of drains and privies are shown in their original context, along with other archeological artifacts. [3]
Usually made of a toughened glass which is also laminated for structural strength, a transparent floor is most commonly used as a tourist attraction. Glass-bottom boats are popular for allowing a better view into the body of water.
At 4000 feet (1219 m), the highest glass floor above ground is the novel outdoor application of the Grand Canyon Skywalk, operated by the Hualapai Indian tribe.[ citation needed ] The highest above ground level in a freestanding structure is in Lotte World Tower in Seoul, South Korea at 1,568 feet (478 m). [4]
In May 2014, the top layer of a glass floor spontaneously shattered in "the Ledge", a popular tourist attraction more than 1,500 feet (460 m) above street level, near the top of the Willis Tower in Chicago. Spokespersons for the architect (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) and the tower management said that the broken glass was a protective layer, and that two other slabs of glass beneath it were strong enough to prevent anybody falling through. [5] [6]
Some new planetariums now feature a glass floor, which allows spectators to stand near the center of a sphere surrounded by projected images in all directions, giving the impression of floating in outer space. For example, a small planetarium at AHHAA in Tartu, Estonia features such an installation, with special projectors for images below the feet of the audience, as well as above their heads. [7]
Scientific studies of locomotion and gait have used glass floors to enable views from all angles.
Glass floors have also been used by artists to study foreshortening. The surrealist painter Salvador Dalí had one built in his studio to help him with the dramatic perspectives in some of his artwork. [8]
The CN Tower is a 553.3 m-high (1,815.3 ft) communications and observation tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Completed in 1976, it is located in downtown Toronto, built on the former Railway Lands. Its name "CN" referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. Following the railway's decision to divest non-core freight railway assets prior to the company's privatization in 1995, it transferred the tower to the Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation responsible for the government's real estate portfolio.
Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Shard in London (2012), Kansai International Airport in Osaka (1994), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (2015), İstanbul Modern in Istanbul (2022) and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens (2016). He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998.
The Willis Tower, originally and still commonly referred to as the Sears Tower, is a 110-story, 1,451-foot (442.3 m) skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), it opened in 1973 as the world's tallest building, a title that it held for nearly 25 years. It is the third-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the 23rd-tallest in the world. Each year, more than 1.7 million people visit the Skydeck observation deck, the highest in the United States, making it one of Chicago's most popular tourist destinations.
The John Hancock Center is a 100-story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018.
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.
Daylighting is the practice of placing windows, skylights, other openings, and reflective surfaces so that direct or indirect sunlight can provide effective internal lighting. Particular attention is given to daylighting while designing a building when the aim is to maximize visual comfort or to reduce energy use. Energy savings can be achieved from the reduced use of artificial (electric) lighting or from passive solar heating. Artificial lighting energy use can be reduced by simply installing fewer electric lights where daylight is present or by automatically dimming or switching off electric lights in response to the presence of daylight – a process known as daylight harvesting.
U.S. Bank Tower, known locally as the Library Tower and formerly as the First Interstate Bank World Center, is a 1,018-foot (310.3 m) skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, California. It is, by structural height, the third-tallest building in California, the second-tallest building in Los Angeles, the 24th-tallest in the United States, the third-tallest west of the Mississippi River after the Salesforce Tower and the Wilshire Grand Center, and the 129th-tallest building in the world, after being surpassed by the Wilshire Grand Center. However, the U.S. Bank Tower does surpass both the Salesforce Tower and the Wilshire Grand Center in roof height, making it the only building in California whose roof height exceeds 1,000 feet (300 m). Because local building codes required all high-rise buildings to have a helipad, it was known as the tallest building in the world with a rooftop heliport from its completion in 1989 to 2010 when the China World Trade Center Tower III opened. It is also the third-tallest building in a major active seismic region; its structure was designed to resist an earthquake of 8.3 on the Richter scale. It consists of 73 stories above ground and two parking levels below ground. Construction began in 1987 with completion in 1989. The building was designed by Henry N. Cobb of the architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and cost $350 million to build. It is one of the most recognizable buildings in Los Angeles, and often appears in establishing shots for the city in films and television programs.
Eureka Tower is a 297.3 m (975 ft) skyscraper located in the Southbank precinct of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction began in August 2002 and the exterior was completed on 1 June 2006. The plaza was finished in June 2006 and the building was officially opened on 11 October 2006. The project was designed by Melbourne architectural firm Fender Katsalidis Architects and was built by Grocon. The developer of the tower was Eureka Tower Pty Ltd, a joint venture consisting of Daniel Grollo (Grocon), investor Tab Fried and one of the Tower's architects Nonda Katsalidis.
The Calgary Tower is a 190.8-metre (626 ft) free standing observation tower in the downtown core of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Originally called the Husky Tower, it was conceived as a joint venture between Marathon Realty Company Limited and Husky Oil as part of an urban renewal plan and to celebrate Canada's centennial of 1967. The tower was built at a cost of CA$3,500,000 and weighs approximately 10,884 tonnes, of which 60% is below ground. It opened to the public on June 30, 1968, as the tallest structure in Calgary, and the tallest in Canada outside Toronto. It was renamed the Calgary Tower in 1971.
311 South Wacker Drive is a post-modern 65-story skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois, and completed in 1990. At 961 feet tall, it is the ninth-tallest building in Chicago and the 36th tallest in the United States. It was once the tallest reinforced concrete building in the world. 311 South Wacker was also the tallest building in the world known only by its street address, until it was surpassed in height by New York's 432 Park Avenue in 2015.
An observation deck, observation platform, or viewing platform is an elevated sightseeing platform usually situated upon a tall architectural structure, such as a skyscraper or observation tower. Observation decks are sometimes enclosed from weather, and a few may include coin-operated telescopes for viewing distant features.
The Queen Victoria Building is a heritage-listed late-19th-century building located at 429–481 George Street in the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Designed by the architect George McRae, the Romanesque Revival building was constructed between 1893 and 1898 and is 30 metres (98 ft) wide by 190 metres (620 ft) long. The domes were built by Ritchie Brothers, a steel and metal company that also built trains, trams and farm equipment. The building fills a city block bounded by George, Market, York, and Druitt Streets. Designed as a marketplace, it was used for a variety of other purposes, underwent remodelling, and suffered decay until its restoration and return to its original use in the late twentieth century. The property is co-owned by the City of Sydney and Link REIT, and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 5 March 2010.
The Jewel Tower is a 14th-century surviving element of the Palace of Westminster, in London, England. It was built between 1365 and 1366, under the direction of William of Sleaford and Henry de Yevele, to house the personal treasure of King Edward III. The original tower was a three-storey, crenellated stone building which occupied a secluded part of the palace and was protected by a moat linked to the River Thames. The ground floor featured elaborate sculpted vaulting, described by historian Jeremy Ashbee as "an architectural masterpiece". The tower continued to be used for storing the monarch's treasure and personal possessions until 1512, when a fire in the palace caused King Henry VIII to relocate his court to the nearby Palace of Whitehall.
Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from its two most important donors, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. The museum is located at the Museumpark in the district Rotterdam Centrum, close to the Kunsthal and the Natural History Museum.
Governor Phillip Tower, Governor Macquarie Tower and the Museum of Sydney are the main elements of a large development in the Sydney central business district in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Completed in 1994, the property development complex occupies an elevated site in the north-east area of the central business district. The complex incorporates the site of the first Government House, one of Australia's earliest and most significant sites of European heritage. The address is 1 Farrer Place. Designed by architects Denton Corker Marshall and built by Grocon, at the time of its completion it was regarded as achieving new standards for Sydney commercial architecture in terms of finish quality and design.
Leadlights, leaded lights or leaded windows are decorative windows made of small sections of glass supported in lead cames. The technique of creating windows using glass and lead came to be known as came glasswork. The term 'leadlight' could be used to describe any window in which the glass is supported by lead, but traditionally, a distinction is made between stained glass windows and leadlights; the former is associated with the ornate coloured-glass windows of churches and similar buildings, while the latter is associated with the windows of vernacular architecture and defined by its simplicity.
Bitexco Financial Tower is a skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. At its completion in 2010, it became the tallest building in Vietnam and kept this status until January 2011, when it was surpassed by Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower. With 68 floors above ground and three basements, the building has a height of 262.5 metres (861 ft), making it the second tallest building in the city, fourth tallest in Vietnam, and the 412th tallest in the world, as of May 2022.
A display case is a cabinet with one or often more transparent tempered glass surfaces, used to display objects for viewing. A display case may appear in an exhibition, museum, retail store, restaurant, or house. Often, labels are included with the displayed objects, providing information such as descriptions or prices. In a museum, the displayed cultural artifacts are normally part of the museum's collection, or are part of a temporary exhibition. In retail or a restaurant, the items are normally being offered for sale. A trophy case is used to display sports trophies or other awards.
Science Centre AHHAA is a science centre located in Tartu, Estonia, and is currently the largest science centre in the Baltic states. AHHAA was established to promote science and technology using interactive exhibits.
Pavement lights (UK), vault lights (US), floor lights, or sidewalk prisms are flat-topped walk-on skylights, usually set into pavement (sidewalks) or floors to let sunlight into the space below. They often use anidolic lighting prisms to throw the light sideways under the building. They were developed in the 19th century, but declined in popularity with the advent of cheap electric lighting in the early 20th. Older cities and smaller centers around the world have, or once had, pavement lights. In the early 21st century, such lights are over a century old, although lights are being installed in some new construction.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Underfloor: The remains of first Government House's drains and privies are exposed below the floor. Also displayed is a selection of relics, ruins and rubbish from the house retrieved by archaeologists in the 1980s.