Towering Inferno Extinguished?

Posted by Dallas Luxury Realty on Thursday, June 13th, 2013 at 4:22am.

As most of your have probably heard, due to a design flaw in the new Museum Tower Condos in the Dallas Arts District, on a bright sunny day (which in Dallas is about 90% of the time) the amount of light reflected from the shiny new building into the Nasher Art center is apparently enough to do damage to anything in it's rays, especially the beautiful landscaping and vegetation. Which is not good. And everyone has been up in arms about this issue, with art activists attacking developers and saying they knew this would happen and forged ahead with the design anyway, while the developer has steadfastly held to their claim that it truly was an honest mistake that was overlooked. well, now it seems like things may finally be coming to a conclusion. We received the following letter below this morning from the developer.

June 13, 2013

Dear Friend,

Today marks an important milestone in the search for a solution to the reflected sunlight issue between Museum Tower and the Nasher Sculpture Center.

Until the exterior of our building went up, we were not aware that the oculi sunscreen system that covers the Nasher Sculpture Center’s glass roof was pointed directly at our property, and that our high performance, energy efficient glass reflected sunlight into the galleries during certain times of the day. This was an unexpected development and an unintended consequence.

More than a year and a half ago, Museum Tower assembled a team of the best experts in their respective fields including architects, engineers, construction, landscape and material experts, and optical scientists. After many months of research, computer modeling and peer-reviewed testing, Museum Tower’s team of experts report that a modest reconfiguration of the unique sunscreen system on the Nasher’s glass roof proved effective in delivering the 100 percent solution as requested by the Nasher.

On April 26, 2013, Museum Tower representatives presented the solution with complete engineering and scientific reports to Nasher Sculpture Center Board of Trustees President David Haemisegger and Trustee Nancy Nasher Haemisegger. Museum Tower representatives offered to pay for the reconfigured sunscreen system. The Nasher trustees assured Museum Tower’s representatives that the reports would be reviewed by their own engineering team and that they would respond within seven to ten days.

Today, at the request of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System Trustees, System Administrator Richard Tettamant presented a report on the proposed solution at the Board’s regular monthly meeting. The presentation was the same one that was made to the two Nasher trustees and demonstrates delivery on the Pension System’s good faith promise to find the solution and have Museum Tower, LP pay for testing, fabrication and installation.

The Nasher Sculpture Center is covered with thousands of open-ended cones (oculi) that allow indirect sunlight into the galleries. According to Dr. Cyrus D. Cantrell, Ph.D., P.E., “We know the newly designed oculi work. This solution has been peer reviewed by the best experts in the country. It only requires a slight adjustment to the oculi system of about 45 degrees to completely eliminate unwanted light and any view of the surrounding buildings. This is a beautifully engineered solution."

You may be interested about how this solution affects the Nasher Sculpture Garden. The impact of reflected light on the Nasher’s garden has been carefully observed for over one year and according to Scott Ogden, a nationally known horticulturist and garden designer, “Reflections from Museum Tower have no demonstrable effect on the vegetation in the Nasher garden, there is no damage from sunlight reflected by the Tower, that the garden is doing well and will continue to do so.”

We hope that the Nasher will agree that this reconfigured sunscreen solution works because it eliminates reflection from Museum Tower into the Nasher galleries.

We invite you to visit www.oculisolution.com for an animated demonstration of the reconfigured oculi design, expert interviews and the engineering reports for this solution.

We're very pleased to be able to present this solution to the Nasher Sculpture Center. Please call me if you have any questions.

Sincerely


Steve Sandborg

Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Museum Tower


So there you have it. What do you think? Is it enough, and most importantly, it is going to work? 

 

 

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