Fabricator’s architectural glass designs complement metal
Family-owned and operated since its founding, GlasPro has specialized in producing high-quality structural, architectural and design glass for more than 25 years. The company fulfills the needs of architects, glaziers, designers and artists who require a glass fabricator with the experience, expertise and understanding of structural and design challenges to bring their visions to reality. Based in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., metal has been an integral component in virtually all its projects.
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“GlasPro specializes in the 5 percent of the projects that other glass fabricators do not want to execute,” says Joe Green, president of GlasPro. “That’s our niche, that’s where there is still some margin to be made. If there’s a smaller number of fabricators, there’s a chance to maintain some profits in those projects. There’s metal involved with everything we do and we work closely with metal fabricators.”
Green’s grandfather was in the glass business from 1920 and the roots of GlasPro go back three generations. GlasPro was founded in 1988, and Joe Green has been its president since 2007. “We are a mix of craft and technology,” Green says. “We are all about executing the subcontractors’ design. We don’t create the design of the project; we are helping to facilitate it.”
Metal and glass
The New Tom Bradley International Terminal and The American Airlines Admirals Club at Los Angeles International Airport offers travelers “an oasis of peace” amid the bustle of airport travel. It also offers one of GlasPro’s very best examples of how metal can function so effectively with glass. Its defining feature is the panoramic glass outer wall. Comprised of clear, tempered panels, the entire structure employs an advanced system of mounting hardware and structural glass allowing an unobstructed view and creating a serene, light-filled ambiance.
GlassPro brought this concept from drawing board to completion. It fabricated the oversized main-plates and vertical “fins,” providing the architects freedom to pursue their vision, and create a sublime experience of California sunshine and the wonder of flight. It has a very low metal support system that supports 60,000 square feet of structural glass.
As part of a $321 million project at the California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif., GlasPro added a new VIP balcony that puts guests more than 50 feet over the pedestrian plaza, standing on a daunting frit-treated glass walkway. Visitors at ground level can see the obscured feet of the guests above. This balcony offers one of the most stunning views of the entire bay area, and also gives a unique private perspective of the stadium events.
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“This project entailed approximately 5,000 square feet of glass flooring with a very complex metal substructure,” Green says. “An architect had a concept dealing with the mechanical properties of the structure, the substructure and the actual glass. Metal provided the structure and the aesthetic that everyone wanted. So the substructure, the L-angle, the trusses underneath, the handrail, the cap: all of those components meshed together to create that glass flange. This was a perfect example of metal and glass.”
Another example of GlasPro’s success using a combination of metal and glass is a Chevron gas station in Artesia, Calif. Because of its unique structural glass façade fabricated by GlasPro, visitors are more likely to feel like they are at a convention center rather than a gas filling station. The structural glass face of the convenience store features a translucent white glass with many unique sizes and shapes to achieve a 3-D pop-out effect. “People think of metal as a sculptural type of material,” Green says. “Metal provided the structure, and the actual sculpture, shape aspect and glass is sort of like a light component. That’s how that came together.”
The journey through Miami International Airport pedestrian walkway was shaped by GlasPro’s glass and metal interface. A 72-foot-long window wall has more than 150 colored-glass squares creating a spectrum that gradually changes from deep reds to bright violets, evoking the sensation of a rainbow arching over the Everglades after a mid-summer thunderstorm. The X-bracing of white structural steel allowed this creation to exist. “The metal systems utilized a point-supported glazing system that utilizes fixing bolts with rotational rotules,” Green says.
GlasPro’s metal/glass fusions of creativity and technology transform common human experiences and elevate the everyday from mundane to miraculous. To make this possible, the company has a 75,000-square-foot fabrication facility that houses complete bending, tempering, lamination and fabrication operations.
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Clear GlasPro performance
One way GlasPro stays successful is by focusing on marketing directly to the architectural design community. “This is responsible for the majority of our growth,” Green says. “We are really about product development. We work in both interior and exterior projects. Los Angeles has a very strong architectural base. For 20 years, all I did was go out and call on the glass and the handrail people, and try to get the work they had coming in. We’ve tried to expand the relationship with the architectural community to let us be the specifying manufacturer; also we have to develop products for them to specify. It’s a long-term approach, as opposed to a short-term approach.” More than 50 percent of what GlasPro produces is for projects outside of California. “We provide items that fill an opening; we ship out of here every day,” he says. But Green stresses that California is a very important market and will continue to be.
He admits the state has its own legislative challenges, but as a fifth-generation Californian, he doesn’t anticipate the company leaving it anytime soon. Looking to the future, GlasPro is committed to continuing to bring innovations to market which will bring newer, more efficient and more costeffective solutions to its customers.
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GlasPro Company Profile
Year founded: 1988
Location: Santa Fe Springs, Calif.
Website: www.glas-pro.com
Number of Employees:approximately 107 employees
Services Offered: Complete bending, tempering, lamination and fabrication operations
Management Team:
S. Joseph Green, President
John Griffin, General Manager
McNeill Bishop, Vice President of Marketing & Product Development
Steve Sudeth, Creative Director
