A number of glass companies traveled to Las Vegas last week to take part in GlassBuild America. While the show primarily targets glazing companies, exhibitors reported that they were also seeing a few architects walking the show, and were featuring products that can be specified for both interior and exterior applications.

Guardian displayed its colorful, switchable privacy glass; this piece was nick-named the Smurf glass.

Chris Dolan, director of commercial glass products for Guardian Industries, said the company was featuring its partnerships with two advanced glazing companies, Soladigm Electrochromic Glazing and Pythagoras Solar. One of the featured products was the electrochromic Sunguard EC, which it is marketing with Soladigm, as well as Guardian’s PVGU photovoltaic glass, marketed with Pythagroas Solar.

“There is tremendous interest in buildings that approach net zero,” said Dolan. “Architects are looking for products like these … [as they] make more options available.”

Guardian was also featuring switchable privacy glass, which goes from opaque to clear. The product can also be produced with colorful interlayers and is ideal for applications such as board rooms, as well as hotels and restaurants.

AGC featured a variety of glass products, including decorative selections.

Imagery in glass continues to be popular, and Todd Danciak, director of marketing with AGC Glass Company North America, said the company’s Krystal Images decorative glass products were receiving a lot of interest, “especially because of the clarity of the pictures we’re able to display,” he said.Decorative wasn’t the only feature in the company’s booth.

“We’re introducing a new triple silver coating that’s coming to the market the first quarter of 2013,” said Danciak.

PPG was also busy with a number of new products for architectural glazing. Glenn Miner, director, construction, flat glass, said they were announcing the new Solarban 67, a solar control low-E product that will be available for commercial shipments in the first quarter of next year. Miner says it has a neutral appearance for both transmittance and reflective colors.

PPG displayed a number of new glass products, many for both residential and commercial applications.

Also on the decorative side, Walker Glass featured six new designs in its Nuances line of acid-etched glass. Danik Dancause said before narrowing it down to the final six, the company started with 600 designs.“We asked architects and designers which ones they liked,” he explained of the study completed to select the new options.

“We found that lines/classic designs are what [architects and designers] are looking for,” he said. These styles also include the company’s first double-sided pattern, which Dancause said renders somewhat of a 3-dimensional effect and also received a lot of attention.