Glass Inc. - Reflections 1999-2019

panels together. This process is typically completed from the in- side of the building. “Because of the brick wall on the inside of the curtain,” Smith explained, “we had to invent and build our own new tools.” Smith explained they also ran into unforeseen challenges in covering a 50-year-old brick building. “It actually ended up cost- ing us, financially, but we learned invaluable lessons about how to complete this sort of work.” “We aren’t scared of taking on new work — the kind we’ve never completed before.” Another Hospital Job About a year after Glass, Inc. completed the Memorial Hospital job, Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula, Mississippi, requested a similar renovation. “They wanted us to tear down an old curtain wall system that was energy inefficient and that had all kinds of other issues,” Smith said, “and replace it with a hurricane-impact-rated, unitized system.” Most of the glass companies who received Singing River’s bid package responded that the job couldn’t be completed as re- quested. “Most of them said, ‘You can’t do it’, but I said, “We can do it because we just did it!” Glass, Inc. was the only company to bid on the job. “We actually had to sell the owner and architect on the fact that we could complete the job as specified,” Smith said. Singing River Hospital’s bid is a perfect example of the ben- efits of having a competitive edge. The World Trade Center When the Four Seasons decided to develop the old World Trade Center building in New Orleans and convert it into a luxury hotel, the company asked for bids to replace the old win- dows with hurricane-impact-rated unitized systems. “We already had the system perfected, as well as the expertise about how to do it,” Smith said. “Right now, there really isn’t anyone else who does this sort of job.” The expertise that Glass, Inc. achieved by taking a calculated risk on Memorial Hospital led to multi-million dollar jobs with Singing River Hospital and the Four Seasons in New Orleans. “We really didn’t even have any competition on either job,” Smith said. Combatting the Brutal Gulf Air Glass, Inc., has been a front-runner in providing windows for high-rise condominiums on the Gulf Coast since the early 2000s. However, the constant exposure to salt air had proven problem- atic. The painted finish on the outside of the aluminum face caps started to peel after about a decade of exposure to the merciless winds coming off the Gulf of Mexico. Glass, Inc. had turquoise-colored silicone gaskets manufactured for the Turquoise project in Florida. It is still the largest E-Wall project ever completed in the United States. TURQUOISE ORANGEBEACH,ALABAMA A small electrochromatic glass job at East Mississippi Community College led to Glass, Inc.’s securing Century Link’s corporate headquarters contract. Photo by Kristen Smith 126