Traditionally, curtainwall is set from the bottom up – in a replacement project, large sections of glass are removed. For a hotel, this means taking multiple floors and rooms offline and exposing the building finishes to the weather. To circumvent this issue and offer the best possible solution for the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Rockford, in partnership with Amway and the design team, adopted an innovative approach that resulted in the first-ever top-down curtainwall installation in the U.S.
By leveraging this method, the project team could remove small sections of glass, keeping the hotel up and running while protecting interior assets. The top-down approach presented some challenges, including the need to position a crane at the top of the 29-story high-rise in a congested downtown area. The crane required extensive engineering with new structural bracing on the inside of the building as well as detailed planning to coordinate installation and removal.
The new, expanded vision glass offers floor-to-ceiling views of the city. Additionally, the building now rises 10 feet higher while maintaining its iconic sloped roof. The hotel also features a new LED crown lighting system with color changing capabilities, offering enhanced visibility for one of the city’s most notable buildings.
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