News & Trends

When people book a hotel room, they typically have high expectations. These range from the quality of customer service they receive and number of amenities offered to the overall interior design—the room layout, paint colors, furniture and building materials. While they may not enter the hotel consciously planning to critique every aspect of it, more often than not, they'll do so, at least to some degree. This includes sizing up the check-in area and individual rooms.

Modern hotel designs exhibit the innovative utilization of various components and colors to create a contemporary atmosphere, even in the guest bathrooms. Glass is often incorporated into all these spaces. Although many people envision the shower doors when you mention glass, this resourceful material is frequently used in other ways. Particularly, it’s used to fabricate shower walls.

This unique application results in an entire panel of glass from the floor to the ceiling, with the inside walls including custom cutouts for the shower hardware, creating a modern, clean look.

An office's configuration, regardless of size or industry, directly affects its atmosphere and functionality. While the space should be aesthetically pleasing, it should also have a layout that makes sense and benefits the people working there.

If architects wish to create a positive, productive and updated office interior, they should consider incorporating glass partitions into their designs.

When you go to a hockey arena, a department store, office, or any other commercial space, you’re going to see glass. The versatile material can be utilized in various ways. That revolving door at the last hotel you stayed in: glass. Those room dividers in your office building: glass. The display tables at your favorite clothing store: glass. The list goes on and on.

There are several reasons glass remains a popular commercial construction component. This transparent material not only looks great, but also possesses other significant qualities that make it ideal within corporate office settings. Specifically, its use as an interior door—whether for an individual office or conference room—holds several advantages.

The versatility of glass makes it ideal for a wide range of commercial applications, both interior and exterior. Between its ecological advantages and stunning appearance, it's no surprise glass is consistently in high demand within the construction industry. One such use is as painted panels for commercial interiors.

A wide range of factors affect a retail store’s success, besides the actual merchandise. While product quality is paramount, marketing efforts, customer service, interior design and product placement are equally important.

Interior doors can be constructed of a wide range of materials, including wood, metal, vinyl, fiberboard, and glass—with the latter ever-growing in popularity. Recent statistics anticipate interior glass door utilization—whether swinging, sliding, panel, bi-fold or multi-slide doors—will increase considerably throughout the next several years.

Similar to ever-evolving fashion trends, workplace interior design elements are always changing, too. The so-called "modern" office interior from 20 years ago, for instance, doesn’t line up with what’s considered contemporary today. Significant differences exist, even just from a decade ago. There are several reasons for this, with technology, company culture and employee health at the forefront.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is known for its establishment of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards for commercial and residential buildings—which rate buildings' environmental performance and encourage sustainability components in design and construction phases among architects and contractors.

Many within these industries are aware of LEED and its many benefits, both environmental and economic. There may be several lesser-known aspects of this green building program, however.

Glass Magazine, an online resource for those in the flat glass and metal industries including glass fabricators, retailers and manufacturers, architects and glazing contractors, recently named the 2018 Top Glass Fabricators. This list is complied of glass fabrication companies in the United States and Canada based on their annual sales volume.