At Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco, glass was used as a coordinated daylighting, shading, thermal and circulation strategy rather than as a simple way to add more windows. Architect EHDD specified Solarban® 70 glass from Vitro Architectural Glass for new skylights and a third-story curtainwall addition, then combined it with frit patterns, roller shades, an exterior awning, corridor transoms and improvements to the older curtainwall. The approach gave the project more usable daylight and sky views while addressing solar heat, historic-preservation limits and the need for comfortable communal spaces.
A school addition designed around a tight historic envelope
Lick-Wilmerding’s renovation and addition had to sit above an existing mid-century school building. Historic-preservation guidelines constrained the available interior height, so the design team could not simply enlarge every room or raise the entire roof to create more volume. EHDD instead used carefully placed transparent and translucent elements to make the available space feel brighter, taller and more connected.
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The new work added a third-story curtainwall above the historic building. Its joints were made with silicone rather than exposed mullions, producing a continuous appearance that connected the addition to the existing mid-century curtainwall. The older system also received interior acrylic glazing. That secondary interior layer was intended to improve the thermal performance of the existing assembly without removing the historic curtainwall wholesale.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallThis combination matters because a new high-performance façade and an older façade rarely behave identically. The project therefore treated the addition and the retained building as related but distinct thermal problems. The new curtainwall could be detailed as part of the addition, while interior acrylic glazing upgraded the existing system from inside.
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How the daylight strategy works as students move through the building
The lobby skylight creates volume, not just illumination
The most prominent daylight move is the lobby skylight. EHDD shaped it to create vertical volume and to wash a formed soffit with diffuse light. That soffit gives daylight a broad surface to spread across, helping the entry read as a taller and more dynamic space despite the height limitations imposed by preservation requirements.
The skylight also frames views of the sky. Rather than treating a roof opening as a bright patch on the floor, the design uses the ceiling, soffit and vertical surfaces to make the source of light legible to people entering the school. SiJing Sanchez, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Assoc. DBIA, the project manager and architect, described the intent this way: “The lobby skylight was designed to create vertical volume and wash a shaped soffit to maximize daylighting and views to the sky to make the space more dynamic at the entry.”
That additional volume supports more than circulation. Sanchez said, “The extra volume and diffused daylight created by the skylight allows the lobby to serve as a primary student hang-out and pre-function space for community events.” In practical terms, the lobby is expected to host people waiting, meeting and gathering, so the design gives it a quality appropriate to longer stays instead of treating it as a passage between doors.
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Hallway skylights distribute light across the route
Other skylights were positioned to graze hallway walls. This is a distribution decision: directing light along a wall can help prevent one section of a corridor from appearing disproportionately dark compared with another. The goal was not simply to maximize the total area of glazing overhead. It was to make the change in brightness along the circulation route more gradual and to give people a readable visual path.
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Corridor transom windows add another layer of borrowed daylight. Because transoms sit above doors or partitions, they can move light between rooms and circulation areas while preserving much of the wall and door configuration below. In a school with a constrained existing structure, that makes a transom a useful way to share daylight without requiring every room to have a new exterior opening.
Interior light supports views into communal spaces
The project also considered what people outside the lobby and gallery could see. Sanchez explained, “By making sure the interior side was well lit (by skylight or LED lights), we were able to provide the public and adjacent community with a better glimpse of the activities inside the lobby as well as the gallery space.” The statement describes a deliberate relationship between interior lighting and transparency: glass can provide a view, but the view is more useful when the interior is not left in shadow.
Glass performance was tied to shading and glare control
EHDD selected Solarban 70 because the project wanted energy-conscious solar control without making the glazing so dark that it undermined daylight or views. Building Enclosure’s October 26, 2022 case-study profile reports the following values for a one-inch insulating glass unit with Solarban 70:
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute| Reported characteristic | Value | Assembly context |
|---|---|---|
| Visible light transmittance (VLT) | 64% | One-inch insulating glass unit with Solarban 70 |
| Solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) | 0.27 | One-inch insulating glass unit with Solarban 70 |
VLT describes the proportion of visible light passing through the glazing; the reported 64% figure indicates that the selected one-inch insulating glass unit was intended to admit substantial daylight. SHGC describes the fraction of incident solar radiation that enters as heat. The reported 0.27 value indicates a stronger solar-control objective than an uncoated clear assembly would typically provide. Neither number, by itself, predicts the daylight or temperature in a finished room: orientation, framing, roof geometry, interior finishes, shading position and climate all affect the result.
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Frit patterns reduce exposure without eliminating transparency
The curtainwall uses line frit patterning with different frit percentages. Ceramic frit places a patterned, partially opaque layer on the glass. Varying the coverage allows the design to address solar exposure while retaining portions of the view and daylight opening. The project profile does not state a single frit percentage for every elevation; it describes different percentages as part of the façade response.
Users can adjust roller shades
Spaces received individually controlled roller shades. Individual control is important in a school because sun conditions vary by orientation, time of day and activity. A teacher or occupant can respond to glare on a screen without necessarily darkening an entire floor. The shades also provide a practical second layer of control when the fixed glass and frit pattern cannot address a particular seasonal condition.
An exterior awning marks the entry and adds shade
An exterior awning provides another solar-control layer before sunlight reaches the glass. It also gives the new entry a visible architectural marker and echoes the historic roof eave. Sanchez said, “The awning signals the new entry and adopts a much more industrial and tectonic design language to echo the school’s continued legacy of industrial design.” Because the awning is outside the glazing, it can intercept part of the sun before that energy enters the curtainwall.
Thermal upgrades had to work with the existing curtainwall
The addition’s new curtainwall and the retained façade required different interventions. The third-story system was designed as new construction with mullion-less silicone joints. The older curtainwall received interior acrylic glazing to improve thermal performance. This approach preserves the existing exterior expression while adding a new interior layer that can reduce the direct exposure of occupied space to the older assembly.
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For a school renovation, that distinction is a useful planning lesson. Replacing every historic window may be impractical or unacceptable, while leaving the existing system untouched can limit comfort near the perimeter. Interior secondary glazing can be a way to improve the retained façade, but it also consumes some interior depth and must be coordinated with ventilation, cleaning, hardware and emergency-egress requirements. The Lick-Wilmerding profile identifies the acrylic layer and its thermal purpose but does not publish a whole-building energy model or a measured comparison with the original curtainwall.
What the reported occupant result does—and does not—show
Building Enclosure reports a 94% occupant survey satisfaction score for the project. The score was based on air quality, acoustic quality, lighting and thermal comfort. It is a broad satisfaction result rather than a glass-only measurement, so it should be read as an outcome associated with the completed environment, not as proof that the glazing alone produced the score.
The published account available for this project does not provide the survey sample size, response rate, questionnaire wording, measurement protocol or baseline building score. It therefore cannot establish how representative the 94% figure is or how it compares statistically with another school. The result is best treated as a reported post-occupancy indicator from the project profile, not as a controlled or independently audited test of Solarban 70.
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The case-study article says the project received the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment’s 2022 Top Green Building award and the Center for the Built Environment at the University of California, Berkeley’s 2020 Livable Building of the Year award. A current Vitro Architectural Glass news page also identifies the Lick-Wilmerding project as an award-winning San Francisco high school project using Solarban 70.
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Those recognitions provide context for why the project is frequently cited, but the available account does not include the organizations’ selection criteria or independent award records. The awards should therefore be reported as honors attributed to the project profile, without inferring that they constitute a laboratory validation of the glass or guarantee a particular performance level at another school.
What other school-renovation teams can take from the approach
The project offers a useful sequence for evaluating glazing in a constrained renovation. It is a design precedent, not a specification that can be copied without analysis.
- Map the experience first. Identify where students, staff and visitors wait, gather and move. The Lick-Wilmerding team gave the lobby a skylight and vertical volume because it functions as both an entry and a community space.
- Distribute daylight along circulation. Test whether skylights, wall-washing or transoms can reduce abrupt changes in brightness. A larger roof opening is not automatically better if it leaves adjacent corridor surfaces dark.
- Set the glass target in assembly terms. Compare VLT and SHGC for the complete insulating glass unit, not for an unspecified pane or a different thickness. The reported 64% VLT and 0.27 SHGC apply specifically to the one-inch unit described in the case study.
- Layer fixed and adjustable controls. Frit, exterior overhangs or awnings and user-operated shades solve different problems. Fixed measures provide a baseline; adjustable shades let occupants respond to changing sun and activity.
- Separate new and retained façade decisions. A new curtainwall may accept a different joint and framing strategy than a historic system. Consider secondary interior glazing where replacement conflicts with preservation goals, while checking the effects on room dimensions and maintenance.
- Plan for interior brightness as part of transparency. If a school wants the public to see activities through a glazed lobby or gallery, provide enough skylight or electric light inside for those views to remain legible.
- Define how performance will be checked. Establish survey methods, sample size, comfort criteria and baseline conditions before occupancy. Without those details, a satisfaction percentage cannot be compared reliably with another project.
Trade-offs and questions to resolve before specifying a similar system
- Daylight versus solar load: Higher VLT can support brighter interiors, while lower SHGC can limit unwanted heat. The right balance depends on orientation, shading and cooling strategy.
- Views versus glare: Transparent curtainwall can connect communal spaces to the neighborhood, but screens and teaching surfaces may still require individually controlled shades.
- Historic fabric versus thermal improvement: Interior acrylic glazing can upgrade an older curtainwall while retaining its exterior, but designers must accommodate interior clearance, seals, cleaning and access.
- Uniform appearance versus tuned façades: Different frit percentages can respond to solar exposure, although variation must be coordinated with the desired exterior pattern.
- Reported satisfaction versus transferable proof: The 94% score is encouraging, but the missing survey methodology means another school should not assume it will achieve the same result.
Lick-Wilmerding’s example demonstrates that successful school glazing is a coordinated building-design decision. The glass specification works with skylight geometry, wall surfaces, transoms, frit, shades, an awning, interior lighting and the treatment of the existing curtainwall. Its reported awards and satisfaction result make the project notable, while the limited published measurement detail is a reminder to document performance methods carefully on future work.
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