Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow

Client: The Buchanan Partnership

Architect: Jenkins & Marr

Contractor: Bovis

Completion of the £3.5 million curtain walling contract at Glasgow's Buchanan Galleries, the largest city centre retail scheme to be built in Scotland in the last 10 years, confirmed Henshaws position as a leading specialist glazing contractor.

On the Buchanan Galleries project, Henshaw carried out the complete package of external curtain walling, Planar™ entrance screens and glazed canopies. The curtainwall system utilised a combination of windows, fixed lights, feature metal panels and balcony rails designed by Henshaw. To achieve the particular aesthetic look desired by the architect, new extruded custom face caps were designed and manufactured.

The contract was logistically complex and required a high level of detailed CAD drawings. Other issues that Henshaw had to take into account were the restricted city centre location which called for strong planning skills and a completion deadline for trading to commence, which made adherence to the demanding building programme crucial.

A full programme of glazing system prototype tests were also carried out at Taywood, together with on site CWCT testing to ensure that the installed curtainwall fully complied with the required performance specification.