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Situated on the Asbury Park, New Jersey, boardwalk, Asbury Ocean Club renders beach house design sensibilities into the form of a luxury high-rise. The 17-story glass and steel tower overlooks the Atlantic Ocean on the resort town’s bustling waterfront, employing extended, walkaround balconies to accentuate horizontal, panoramic views — all made possible by Starphire Ultra-Clear® glass by Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG Glass).

Designed by Handel Architects in New York City, the tower features a curved façade that mirrors the curvature of the shoreline. Part hotel, part luxury apartment building, each unit features generous expanses of floor-to-ceiling windows glazed with Solarban®&�Բ�����;72 Starphire® low-emissivity (low-e), low-iron glass, as well as balcony enclosures fabricated with uncoated Starphire® glass.

According to Handel Architects, simplicity in design and material choice — concrete and glass with wood accents — to creating a luxurious aesthetic that was “open, light and airy.” For the glass specification, maximizing transparency while minimizing reflectivity were critical in maintaining both daytime and nighttime views. Meanwhile, with such large expanses of glass facing the ocean to the east, it was also important to keep solar heat gain at bay. These design requirements made low-e-coated and uncoated Starphire® glass clear choices.

In a 1-inch insulating glass unit (IGU), Solarban® 72 Starphire® glass delivers visible light transmittance (VLT) of 68%, a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.28, as well as exterior and interior reflectance of 13% and 14%, respectively. Meanwhile, even at a thickness of ½-���Գ���, the monolithic Starphire® glass balcony enclosures showcase VLT of 90%, as well as exterior and interior reflectance of only 8%. Unlike conventional clear glasses and many other low-iron glasses, Starphire® glass’s surface clarity and signature blue edge become more apparent at higher thicknesses, maintaining its signature clear aesthetic.

J.E. Berkowitz, a member of the Vitro Certified™ Network, fabricated the floor-to-ceiling windows and balcony glass. Smooth, timely installation was made possible by close collaboration between partnering glazing contractors Architectural Windows, which assembled the glazing units, and Metro Glass, Inc., which installed the glass.

To learn more about Starphire Ultra-Clear® glass and the full range of aesthetic and performance options available from Vitro Glass, visit or call 1-855-VTRO-GLS.