Masonry Magazine March 1966 Page. 10
What's Coming Next In Glass Block?
Masonry Asks This Question In An Exclusive Interview With Pittsburgh Corning
EDITOR'S NOTE: To learn for MASONRY readers what's developing in the glass block market, we went to Pittsburgh, Pa. for a talk with Bob Rawlins, manager of architectural glass products for Pittsburgh Corning Corporation. While there, we saw heavy activity that suggests big news in glass block-soon. Pittsburgh Corning's plans for the future of glass block are revealed in this interview. George A. Miller.
Miller-
Bob, how would you describe Pittsburgh Corning's current assessment of the glass block market and its potential market?
Rawlins-
High optimism. As you know, Pittsburgh Corning is a young, enthusiastic company which believes in basic, grassroots sales and distribution organization. Our entire product group is building materials, and glass block makes up a key portion of this mix. Steady market development work in the field has paid off, and Pittsburgh Corning has a solid distribution system for glass block across the country. Our optimism comes from several sources, however and I'd like to get into some of these other reasons. First, Pittbsurgh Corning's introduction of a series of new glass block products over the past few years has met with excellent success. Mason contractors have been working with our Intaglio units since 1961 (Fig. 1) and architects and builders took to this product very well. We've found that glass block which offer the strong eye appeal and design flexibility that Intaglio does are readily accepted by the design market. Architects are always looking for new design concepts, new ways to apply building materials. For the same reasons, our 12 in. by 12 in. Sculptured Glass Modules (Fig. 2) which we introduced in 1959, had a similar appeal to designers. A good move was the introduction of rectangular 4 in. by 12 in. glass blocks, (Fig. 3) because they give the market a unit that is modular with other.
Fig. 1-Intoglie application shows design versatility of glass block. Masons apply professional standards to gloss block installations.
Fig. 2-Sculptured Glass Modules employ pattern surface depression to create light-shadew interplay.
MASONRY
March, 196