ericmacm
Active Member
Blue, green, and gray tinted glass are honestly really hard to go wrong with. They're a wise decision from an economic standpoint and have minimal effects on the lighting environment inside of the building.
The problem with reflective glass is that it can get really expensive really quickly. Silver, copper/bronze, and gold coloured reflective glass are all coated with their corresponding elements, which brings up the cost of a panel astronomically. This is why podiums tend to be rather visually interesting with all sorts of unique glass types, whereas the towers are more toned down. A gold glass panel can easily have a few hundred dollars worth of gold on it, depending on the size. Now scale that up for a giant office building and it can easily add a few million extra to the glass budget. Silver and copper are not even nearly as pricey, but the process will still make the glass more expensive as they're not nearly as popular as blue, green, and gray tinted glass. The reason you see gold on older towers such as Royal Bank Plaza is because gold was much cheaper decades ago. Gold prices in the 70s were around $200 CAD/oz when adjusted to 2019 levels of inflation. Nowadays it's more like $1800 Cad/oz. Silver has gone through a price climb as well. It's simply not feasible to do on a large scale anymore. Most glass makers don't even make gold glass anymore so it's very difficult to replace panels. This can be best seen in practice at Scotia Place in Edmonton, which was recently reclad from gold to blue and silver glass.
The problem with reflective glass is that it can get really expensive really quickly. Silver, copper/bronze, and gold coloured reflective glass are all coated with their corresponding elements, which brings up the cost of a panel astronomically. This is why podiums tend to be rather visually interesting with all sorts of unique glass types, whereas the towers are more toned down. A gold glass panel can easily have a few hundred dollars worth of gold on it, depending on the size. Now scale that up for a giant office building and it can easily add a few million extra to the glass budget. Silver and copper are not even nearly as pricey, but the process will still make the glass more expensive as they're not nearly as popular as blue, green, and gray tinted glass. The reason you see gold on older towers such as Royal Bank Plaza is because gold was much cheaper decades ago. Gold prices in the 70s were around $200 CAD/oz when adjusted to 2019 levels of inflation. Nowadays it's more like $1800 Cad/oz. Silver has gone through a price climb as well. It's simply not feasible to do on a large scale anymore. Most glass makers don't even make gold glass anymore so it's very difficult to replace panels. This can be best seen in practice at Scotia Place in Edmonton, which was recently reclad from gold to blue and silver glass.
