Iconic Grade I listed hotel gives guests a peaceful night’s sleep with the installation of bespoke aluminium secondary glazing.
This iconic 252-room hotel/club hybrid in London’s financial heartland is the most eagerly awaited project of the year. The building is home to 250 bedrooms, ten restaurants, six private events spaces, spa, indoor & rooftop pools, gym and a members’ club.
Opposite the Bank of England, this building was once the headquarters of the Midland Bank. The ground floor then was a sea of cashiers and tellers surrounded by 92 pillars, all covered in intricate glossy, green marble tiling, which like most structures in this building are grade I listed (architecturally sacrosanct).
Why was Bespoke Aluminium Secondary Glazing Specified?
The entertainment facilities presented disadvantages to guests stopping at the hotel. The busy location suffered from excessive noise pollution that had been noted in historical comments and reviews made by their customers.
After lengthy discussions, the hotel committee decided to find a solution that gave their guests a quiet environment and a peaceful night’s sleep. Secondary glazing was quickly identified as a solution to combat noise pollution and better soundproof the building.
The installation of secondary glazing can decrease noise entering the property by a staggering 80%, this is the equivalent of up to 54 decibels. Other benefits include an increase in thermal insulation which can substantially lower energy consumption and offers a saving in heating costs. Secondary glazing acts as a second barrier preventing noise from entering the property while reducing heat lost through the traditional windows. Arctic Glaze were contracted by Granada Glazing to carry out the bespoke secondary glazing installation.
Arctic Glaze ltd were contracted by Granada Glazing to provide an acoustic installation to help the recording studio block external noise from entering the building. After the initial survey, Arctic Glaze recommended the installation of heritage hinged units with 16.8mm acoustic laminated glass.
To provide optimum acoustic performance, the secondary glazed system needed to be installed with a 200mm air cavity. This cavity provides additional acoustic insulation between the primary window and secondary glazed unit.
2 Weeks
200 Windows
Project Outline
Working in a live hotel environment, especially one of this calibre presented many challenges. Ensuring the hotel could function with minimum disruption to guests and their experience meant using a small team of two specialist installers. The hotel needed to remain functional and open during the installation.
Arctic Glaze project managed the installation of each room, ensuring rooms were treated while not in use. This allowed the hotel to remain open while the acoustic treatment took place. The result was a minimal loss of revenue as the installation had minimal impact. In total Arctic Glaze installed over 200 slimline units in two weeks.
While the Secondary Glazing was specified to battle acoustic shortcomings, there were also areas in the corridors that suffered from a lack of heat insulation from the old-style steel windows. We added multiple Secondary Glazing units to the main function floors, ensuring hotel guests didn’t feel a chill when walking around this iconic hotel.
Products Specified and Installed
To maintain the existing character and charm of the building, we specified the installation of slimline horizontal sliding units. Horizontal sliders are installed with durable brass rollers which allow the panels to slide on the aluminium tracks easily. The panels lock into the outer frame, ensuring they can’t be opened from the outside. Once locked in position the panels create a tight seal with the outer frame, this substantially decreases noise levels entering the building while reducing heating costs.
Horizontal sliders are a popular choice, they are easy to operate and offer minimum maintenance. They are powder coated to a marine finish which can help prevent scratches and can be easily cleaned.
As part of the project, we treated several arched windows which were over 7 meters in height. We proposed a combination of horizontal sliding secondary glazing with stacked arched lift outs. This combination is a cost-effective solution that allowed us to treat the original large arched windows.
Arctic Glaze used their experience to make this a safe and successful installation, with PASMA trained staff to erect the supporting towers and adding barriers to the working areas to prevent harm to the public as again this was a live functioning hotel.
Project Outcome
Arctic Glaze successfully delivered the project on time and within budget. Post-installation, the hotel saw an immediate reduction in customer complaints. It was noted that the acoustic insulation had a significant impact on noise entering the building while the hotel received a cost-saving in heating costs. The installation had a positive effect on heat loss and helped lower the carbon footprint of the building. The slimline secondary glazing blended in seamlessly not affecting the character and charm of the grade I listed hotel.>Overall this was one of the most memorable and successful Arctic Glaze installs to date, and we were very proud to have been part of this project and its ongoing success.
