Make-A-Wish Foundation

Nominating company: Alphacladding LLC
Location: Overtown, Florida

Winning Team

• Contract glazier: Alphacladding LLC
• Glass fabricator: Tecnoglass Inc.
• Metal system manufacturer: ES
• Aluminum panels: Yarlmetals Fabrications Inc.
• Architect: Arquitectonica
• Testing Laboratory: QAI Laboratories Inc.

It seems fitting that the winning project for this year’s Best Project Team award, which celebrates teamwork and collaboration, should be the new headquarters for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a nonprofit that works toward the benevolent goal of fulfilling the wishes of critically ill children. 

Glazing contractor Alphacladding helped deliver a complex and unique façade to the new headquarters, located near downtown Miami in Overtown, Florida. The team worked to design three different curtain wall systems, some of which involved complex trapezoidal geometry and jumbo glass sizes.

“A very successful outcome of achieving the design intent while meeting the demands of south Florida’s impact and wind load criteria,” says Glass Magazine Awards judge John R. Stephenson, senior architect, BRPH.

The complexity of the project required close collaboration with the multidisciplinary team, say Alphacladding officials, including the construction manager, architect and systems manufacturers. “It was necessary to establish design-assist as a tool to minimize problems during the shop drawings, the assembly stage of the units and the installation on-site,” say company officials. “At the same time, [we had to] guarantee on-time delivery of the products to the jobsite thanks to the committed participation, collaboration and coordination of all parties. … The result is a unique façade that combines creativity, efficiency and the use of technology where we managed to achieve the desired appearance of this building, keeping intact the dream of the architect and the owners for the enjoyment of the entire [Overtown] community.”

As a special aside, one of the team’s scopes was to reglaze systems around vertical fins on the building. The fins hold LED lights that illuminate at night when wishes are granted.